Solo: a Star Wars Rewrite
by ScruffyStarWarsFan
Summary: A young Han Solo leaves the Imperial Navy and gets hired by a man called Beckett and gets drawn into the shady operations of the Hutts. Solo runs into Chewbacca and Lando along the way, and when a mission goes south, they plan their revenge. Set roughly ten years before the events of A New Hope, Han Solo is on his way to become a living legend.
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to my alternative storyline for a Han Solo movie, another What If scenario, if Disney allowed me to do a remake. This is how I would have made the movie, or close to it at least. So if you enjoy it, or hate it, do leave a comment._

 **Planet of Corellia:**

Stars. We move down and come a cross a half-finished Star Destroyer, people and droids hard at work like tiny ants all over the huge ship. The Star Destroyer is not in space, but in a dockyard surrounded by a large town.

In the town, a crowd of people are watching a holographic transmission of Chancellor Palpatine proclaiming the Republic as the first Galactic Empire ( the iconic scene from Revenge of the Sith ). The Corellians aren't sure what to make of it.

One of the men speaks to the people next to him. "I heard we're gonna keep building warships for the navy."

"Why?" a woman wonders. "The wars are over aren't they?"

"Please!" the man says and sneers. "The Separatists rebelled against the Republic. How many worlds will rebel now that they've created an Empire? Believe me, the wars wont be over anytime soon."

Another man, arms folded over his chest, shakes his head. "Republic or Empire, I don't care. As long as we keep building ships it means food on the table."

A young boy, 12 years old, listens to the grownups; this is Han Solo! He leaves and runs down the street and finds a platform that overlooks a street on a lower level. A regiment of Clone Soldiers marches by together with AT-PT's and even AT-ST's, the soldiers carrying banners.

"Han!" a woman calls out and walks up to the boy and grabs his arm. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"I just wanted to see the soldiers, mom" Han tells his mother.

His mother turns into a massive frown. "Soldiers? Thugs protecting the rich and wealthy, that's all they are. Look up there." She points at the Star Destroyer being built up in the sky. "You see that? Those ships might mean we all have a job, that we all have food on the table. But somewhere else in the galaxy, those ships will be a symbol of oppression and occupation. Never forget that Han. Those with power will do anything to keep that power, they will lie, cheat and abuse anyone if it means keeping their power. And all we ordinary people can do, is to take every chance we get to exploit the bastards. Turn the tables on them whenever we can. Do you understand? Let them never push you down. Always push back. Always."

 **Planet of Proxima:**

An Imperial Zeta-class cargo-shuttle ( the quad-winged shuttle introduced in Rogue One ) flies towards the planet of Proxima. Onboard are two crewmembers; the pilot, Lieutenant Han Solo, now in his early twenties, along with his co-pilot, Ensign Munbrin.

Solo activates his communicator. "Proxima flight-command, this is shuttle Epsilon Three-Three-Zero. We're transmitting our code-clearance. Please confirm."

A voice responds over the radio. "Shuttle Epsilon Three-Three-Zero, this is Proxima flight-command. We have received your code-clearance and you are cleared to land."

"Understood." Solo says.

The shuttle flies past two Star Destroyers in orbit. The shuttle lands at an Imperial base on the ground, located not far from the frontlines of a warzone; the battles are heard and seen in the background. Solo and his co-pilot steps outside and are greeted by the quartermaster.

The quartermaster rests his hands against his hips. "Han Solo! Welcome back."

Solo grins. "How are ya, Ryq?"

"Could've been better" Ryg says. "The damned rebels on this good for nothing rock just don't know when to give up. Landed two bombs on us only three days ago. And we've been blasting them for how long? Two months? How about you?"

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "Oh, you know, same old crap. Flying from one end of the Empire to the other."

The quartermaster nods. "I can imagine. Anything I should know about concerning your cargo?"

Solo hands Ryq a small box that the quartermaster puts in his pocket.

"Get it off and my boys will unload the rest" Ryq says.

Solo and his co-pilot retrieve a crate from the cargo-hold and leaves with it and only after does the quartermaster give his crew orders to empty the shuttle.

 **XXX XXX**

The crate is opened and Solo hands out various items to a group of Imperial officers in a warehouse.

"Some Corellian brandy. A box of magluvian spice. Nuuvian slicers. A power-charger with a Mandalorian foculizer. And a vial of pishren neuro-toxin… don't drink it all at once."

A colonel steps up to Solo. "Solo, you got what I asked for?"

Solo offers the colonel a smile. "Sure thing, colonel. Straight from Nar Shadaa. Two bottles of belindan gin. What more do you need to forget the stress of fighting rebels?"

The colonel shakes his head. "I don't know how you do it, Solo. Where the hell do you find all this stuff?"

"Hey, it's what I do, colonel. It's what I do."

 **XXX XXX**

Later, the colonel pours himself a drink of belindan gin in his office together with a captain.

The captain studies the drink. "How can a guy like Solo continue his business? Where the hell does he find all of this stuff? It's only a matter of time before a guy like him gets caught."

The colonel shrugs his shoulders. "Solo has connections all over the Empire. Officers in the army, the navy, hundreds of bureaucrats, maybe thousands, that he trades favors with. I'll tell ya, there is no-one in the Empire that has the amount of connections as Han Solo. If you want something that is not acceptable for you to get your hands on, Solo is the guy that will get it for ya."

The captain enjoys the drink but shakes his head. "Sounds to me like the day the guy goes down, he's going down with a big bang."

"I don't know" the colonel says. "Solo was a prodigy in the Academy. Pilot-skills unlike anyone else. The way I understand it, he was singled out to fly TIE Defenders as soon as he graduated."

The captain is obviously impressed by this. "So whatta hell happened? Why's he flying cargo?"

The colonel leans back comfortably in his chair. "He punched a Star Destroyer captain. Apparently, the guy was harassing a twi'lek dance-girl and Solo knocked him out. But Solo's commanding officer at the Academy made sure that Solo avoided penal-duty and instead had him transferred and demoted. So, now, he flies cargo."

The captain shakes his head. "Poor guy. But if he has a soft-spot for lowlifes, he just had it coming. He wont get any sympathies from me."

"I don't think he cares all that much what you think of him, captain. I'm not sure he cares all that much about anyone at all."

 **XXX XXX**

Solo and his co-pilot hangs out with fellow officers and pilots at the base, drinking and joking and gambling. One TIE pilot is exceptionally cocky.

"So I came up behind the rebel fighter, an old separatist-fightercraft, put six salvos into his starboard engine and saw it go down in flames. Nothing to it. These rebels are nothing but farmhands and drunkards."

"Drunkards, huh?" an officer says. "If that's the case, how come I've been stuck here for the past year?"

The pilot shrugs his shoulders. "Hey, what you do on the ground is none of my business. But maybe the war-effort would have gone a bit smoother if the navy was put in charge of all of it."

Solo's co-pilot, Ensign Munbrin, eyes the pilot. "You don't think that two Star Destroyers in orbit is enough to uproot some rebels? Seems to me that the navy is having as much trouble as the army here on Proxima."

"No offense, ensign" the pilot says, "but what would a cargo-pilot know about strategy?"

The officer nods in Solo's direction. "Solo here once managed to fight off two old Y-wings with his Zeta-shuttle. Shot them both down."

The pilot is a bit surprised by this. "A shuttle? Shot down two fighter-bombers?"

The officer nods. "What was that move you made, Solo? You managed to get one Y-wings torpedo to destroy the other one?"

Solo shrugs his shoulders, appearing quite nonchalant about it. "It wasn't all that difficult. As long as you know what you're doing."

The pilot looks at Solo, not believing the story. "You took out a Y-wing, using another Y-wings torpedo?"

"It's all about timing" Solo says. "I let one of them lead me on so the other could come up behind me and take his shot. As the torpedo was about to hit me, I opened my emergency-venting system and blasted the torpedo with hyper-particles, moved out of the way and when the torpedo had reset its tracking-system, it locked on to the other Y-wing. Simple."

The pilot finds the story astonishing. "You would have to hit the torpedo with the venting-blast the moment before it's gonna hit your shields if its gonna distract the targeting-system like that."

Solo simply smiles. "I know." Solo wins the game at that point, placing his hand of cards on the table. "And with that, I'll bleed you all dry and cut my losses. Keep the bottle, gentlemen. I can always get my hands on more."

Solo leaves. Solo's co-pilot, Ensign Munbrin, reaches over and retrieves the bottle of alcohol and pours himself a drink.

"Solo's from Corellia." Munbrin tells the pilot "Flying is in their blood. Corellians are mechanics before they can crawl and pilots before they can walk. Building ships, repairing ships, flying ships, it's what they do. It's all they do. And Solo was exceptional even for a Corellian. So don't worry about it, lieutenant, you'll never be as good as him."

 **XXX XXX**

Solo is walking on his own through the base, late at night. The battles are heard in the background, speeders fly past, AT-ST's walk past, soldiers march past. Solo finds an out of the way place behind some buildings where he meets up with a civilian woman who steps out of the shadows; this is Qi'ra.

"Hello, Han."

"Qi'ra."

"You got what I asked for?"

Solo holds up a datadisc. "You need to ask?"

"Well, you never know. There has to be a first for everything."

"You thinking about making enemies?" Solo asks her.

"It's hard to avoid enemies in my line of work" she tells him.

"True, but picking fights with the Hutt's?"

Qi'ra studies Solo with intense eyes. "You looked at the disc?"

Solo grins. "Sorry. Couldn't help myself. So… patrol-schedules surrounding Kessel, huh? You planning on cutting in on the Hutt's smuggling-operation?"

Qi'ra smiles. "Kessel spice is the best there is in the entire galaxy. If I can offer lower prices than the Hutt's for Kessel glitterstim, I'm set for life."

"That's a big if. The Hutt's are territorial to the extreme. They don't like competition."

Qi'ra nods. "I think I can make a deal they can live with. The Kessel Run is close to eighteen parsecs."

"For good reason" Solo cuts her off. "The nebula makes hyperspace-jumps impossible and patrols and scanners have a tight watch on Kessel. Those eighteen parsecs are the safest route to avoid detection."

Qi'ra nods, she knows Han is right. "I intend to find a shorter route" she then says. "I'm confident I can make the Kessel Run in sixteen parsecs."

"Sixteen? What makes you so sure?"

Qi'ra grins. "I know a guy."

Solo laughs. "I see. Alright, I wont stop you. If you want to upset the Hutt cartels, be my guest. But don't expect me to come to your rescue, sister. Nal Hutta is not part of the Empire."

Qi'ra rolls her eyes. "Han, when have you ever had to come and help me?"

"Well, I do seem to recall that one time…"

"I thought you swore to never bring that up again?"

"Yeah, about that… I might have lied."

"Lieutenant Solo, First Class, I do believe you are a bit of a scoundrel."

Solo offers Qi'ra a charming smile. "Only when it's appropriate. I'm actually a really nice guy."

"Nice guys never finds it appropriate to be scoundrels."

Solo takes a step closer to her. "So they claim."

"Han Solo… will you ever change?"

"Maybe, and only maybe, if I meet the right woman."

"Is that so?"

Qi'ra takes a step closer to Solo and then they embrace and kiss.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Planet of Proxima:**

Solo wakes up in a bed, naked, and when he realizes he is alone in the bed he looks around and spots Qi'ra, dressed as an Imperial officer, placing the cap on her head and about to step outside. She looks back at Solo.

"Oh, by the way" Qi'ra says. "You might want to get out of here while you still can. I might have helped the rebels infiltrate this place."

Solo wakes up in an instant. "You what?!"

Qi'ra gives him a devious smile. "I needed a distraction."

She steps outside and Solo quickly gets out of bed and begins putting clothes on. He gets outside, pulling his jacket on; looking around Qi'ra is gone. Then, explosions erupt across the base and rebel soldiers jump out of a couple of parked trucks; three or four dozen of them, firing their blasters everywhere. Chaos ensues! Solo ends up in the middle of the fighting as Imperial troops rush in to fight the rebels. Solo tries to get away from the battle, but is surrounded by explosions and blaster-fire. Solo guns down three rebels as he moves. While in cover, he spots two rebel-medics running over to wounded rebels; one of them dies from incoming fire and Solo spots the Imperial officer firing his pistol at the medics. The last medic, holding up a white flag with the red symbol of a DNA-strand on it ( the symbol of medics in this version ), gets shot down by the same officer; Solo guns down the Imperial officer with a single shot in retaliation. Solo moves on, shooting another pair of rebels and makes it away from the combat. Ensign Munbrin runs up to Solo, pistol in hand.

"You alright?!" Munbrin asks.

"Yeah" Solo nods. "I'm ok. Takes more than a warzone to kill this Corellian."

At that moment, Solo spots a Lambda-class shuttle leaving the base and flying off at speed. Onboard the shuttle, Qi'ra is alone in the cockpit and throws the cap to the side and buttons up the uniform. She smiles as she hold up the datadisc that Solo brought her.

Solo watches the shuttle leave. "Good luck" he says as the shuttle heads for the clouds. "You're gonna need it."

 **XXX XXX**

Solo and Ensign Munbrin link up with the Colonel on the landing-platform; in the background, the base is partially in ruins after the recent battle.

"Colonel" Solo says and salutes.

"Good morning" the Colonel says. "I'm glad you survived this mornings skirmish. You ready for your next assignment?"

"Always, colonel" Solo replies.

"Good" the Colonel nods. "We have some prisoners. Rebel scum that have a one-way-ticket to Wobani. I've requisitioned your shuttle for the transport."

"Very well, colonel" Solo says. "And what else?"

The Colonel smiles and offers a nod to a corporal who takes a step forward and hands over a bag to Solo.

"A delivery to the planetary governor" the Colonel says. "He knows you're coming with it." Ensign Munbrin takes the bag. "Good luck, Solo."

"Don't worry, colonel. I got a special relationship with luck."

A bit later and Solo and Munbrin watch as Imperial troops escort rebel-prisoners onto the shuttle and shackle them inside.

Munbrin shakes his head. "Filthy lowlifes."

"It's their planet" Solo says. "We came here and started pushing them around. Can you blame them for pushing back?"

Solo enters the shuttle and Munbrin follows him, holding the bag. The two pilots settle down in the cockpit and begin the ignition-sequence. The Zeta-shuttle takes off and leaves the warzone behind and eventually leaves the planet of Proxima. Flying past the two Star Destroyers in orbit, the shuttle then shoots off into hyperspace.

 **Penal-World of Wobani:**

The Zeta-shuttle lands and the prisoners are escorted off the shuttlecraft. Solo now carries the bag and turns to Munbrin.

"Get our lodgings in order, will you? I'll go talk to the governor."

"Got it."

They walk separate ways and Solo heads for the governors office. He walks past large groups of forced labors under strict guard, many being beaten or whipped; Solo is clearly disgusted by it. He finds the governors secretary and places the bag on her desk.

"Special delivery to governor Essada from colonel Xodell."

"Thank you, lieutenant. I'll make sure that the governor receives it as soon as possible."

Solo nods and turns and leaves. Walking across a bridge taking him from one building to another, his focus is drawn to a brawl that erupts down below at ground-level. A Wookie gets beaten by guards with stun-rods; another Wookie steps in and protects the first one ( the second one is Chewbacca! ), takes a lot of beating but keeps fighting, throwing guards around him. Chewbacca is eventually taken down by two guards with electro-whips and then more guards move in with stun-rods. Chewbacca is in the end subdued as two electro-snares are placed around his neck and he is stunned and knocked unconscious. Two large guard-droids move in and pick up Chewbacca and drags him away.

A mean looking officer addresses the prisoners and guards. "Hang the beast up to dry! Let the rest of them know what happens if they don't learn their place in the Empire! Do you scumbags hear me?! The Republic was soft on you lot, but not the Empire! The Empire knows how to deal with you scum! And the Empire will not accept any form of insurrection or insolence! Do you understand?! Get them out of here and get them back to work."

Solo does not like what he sees.

Later at night. Chewbacca is strapped to an X-shaped rig, arms and legs outstretched. Three guards are having a laugh as they poke and prod Chewbacca with stun-rods, drinking straight from bottles of alcohol. Chewbacca roars and howls from the pain while the guards are having a sadistic laugh at the poor Wookies expense. Solo appears out of the shadows and pistol-whips two guards and punches out the third with his fist. Solo hurries to release Chewbacca from the rig and helps him down.

"Can you walk?" Solo asks.

Chewbacca looks up at Solo and replies in Shyriiwook, the Wookie language.

"I'm sorry" Solo says. "I don't… I don't speak that. You need to get out of here. Do you understand? There is a shuttle leaving in less than an hour. You need to sneak onboard it. It will get you to Manaan. Do you understand? Manaan?" Chewbacca nods and says something in Shyriiwook, clearly exhausted from the torture. "You understand? That's great! Ok, you need to get going. Shuttle-bay forty-nine, one hour. Ok?"

Solo lets go of Chewbacca as he slowly limps away. Chewbacca turns and looks back at Solo.

"Go on" Solo says. "You aint got much time."

At that point, Ensign Munbrin shows up and looks at the scene with confusion. "Han, whatta hell is going on?"

"It's alright, Munbrin, I got it covered" Solo says.

"Han, what have you done now?"

"It's alright, I got this" Solo says to reassure his co-pilot. "Don't worry about it and just walk away."

Munbrin looks at the guards, at the Wookie and then at Solo. "You can't be serious? You're gonna help that thing escape?! You realize we'll never leave this place! They're gonna shackle us both and drop us into the mines!"

"It's alright, damn it!" Solo argues. "Just shut up and keep quiet!"

Munbrin shakes his head. "Alright?! What do you mean, it's gonna be alright?! It's not like that thing is a bottle of brandy or a box of spice! It's a god damn Wookie! A slave you just helped escape by knocking out three guards! Damn it, Han, you're gonna get us both locked up at this place for good!"

"Munbrin, I beg of you, calm down."

"Or what? Or what, Han? What are ya gonna do? Shoot me?"

"Don't."

Munbrin picks up his communicator from his belt. "You've gone too far this time. I'm not getting locked up at this place over a lowlife Wookie slave. Not even for you."

Solo shakes his head. "Please, don't."

Munbrin moves the communicator to his mouth. "Flight-control…"

Solo pulls out his pistol and with a single shot guns down Munbrin. Munbrin, in shock, falls to the ground. Solo runs up to him and kneels next to his co-pilot.

"I'm sorry, kid" Solo says. "You gave me no other choice."

Munbrin is unable to utter a word as he struggles to stay alive. In the end, he lets out his last breath and dies. Solo sighs, holsters his pistol and moves on over to the Wookie.

"Come on" he tells Chewbacca. "We aint got much time."

Solo and Chewbacca make their way through the base, moving from cover to cover, keeping out of sight. They hurry onboard Solo's shuttle and they both sit down in the cockpit; Solo in the pilots seat and Chewbacca in the co-pilots. As Solo begins to start up the shuttle, Chewbacca helps him out.

Solo watches the Wookie with some disbelief. "You're a pilot?"

Chewbacca replies in Shyriiwook and nods and continues prepping the shuttle for take-off.

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "How about that. Who knew." The shuttle is then ready to take flight. "Hang on. This might get a bit rough."

The Zeta-shuttle takes off and heads for the skies. Over the radio, Solo and Chewbacca receives a transmission from Wobani as they head for space.

"Shuttle Epsilon Three-Three-Zero, return to base immediately. Your lift-off is in direct violation of procedure. Turn around now or we will have to treat you as a stolen shuttlecraft and shoot you down. Do you understand, Epsilon Three-Three-Zero? Turn back now or we will open fire."

Solo operates the controls. "This is where the fun begins."

Chewbacca says something in return and shakes his head. Two TIE Fighters pursues the Zeta-shuttle and soon opens fire. The sluggish Zeta-shuttle takes several hits.

"Don't worry" Solo tells Chewbacca. "I got a nice little surprise installed, just for this sort of emergency."

The two TIE's comes up behind the shuttle and opens fire. Solo pulls a lever and clamps along the shuttles dorsal release four large canisters that are dropped behind the shuttle. The canisters flies straight into the two TIE's and blasts them both to pieces.

"My favorite cocktail" Solo says with a grin. "Tibanna Sunrise. Now, let's get the hell out of here before a cruiser cuts us off."

The shuttle shoots off into hyperspace, leaving Wobani behind.

 **Planet of Mimban:**

The Zeta-shuttle flies in towards the planet of Mimban, enters atmosphere and finds a huge tower, a mile across and six miles in height; it is a massive city in the shape of a huge skyscraper. They land on a landing-pad extending from the main structure. As Solo and Chewbacca exit the shuttle, they are greeted by a woman followed by six mean-looking guards.

Solo offers the woman a charming smile. "Bayla Rom! Long time no see."

The woman nods. "No kidding, Solo. And for good reason. The spice you sold us was of such poor quality two dozen people died within a week after you had left."

"Hey" Solo says, holding out his arms in a defensive gesture, "I just brought you the Hutt spice. That was all I did. Can't blame me for the quality."

"Really? So why haven't we seen you around since then?" Bayla wonders.

"I got preoccupied elsewhere" Solo says. "But now I'm back."

Bayla nods, not trusting Solo. "What's up with the Wookie?"

"He needs a transport out of here" Solo explains. "And I need to get rid of my ride as quickly as possible."

Bayla raises an eyebrow at this. "You've deserted? So they finally got tired of your schemes, huh?"

"Something like that, yeah" Solo nods. "How about it, Bayla? The internal-systems alone should give me at least six or seven thousand."

Bayla takes a look at the shuttle. "I'll give you five. It's the best I can do with a stolen Imperial shuttle. Five thousand, and I can guarantee you that it will be chopped up into spare-parts before the day is over. There wont by any trace left of it. No proof you landed here."

Solo shakes his head, he knows he's being swindled, but he has no other choice. "Alright… You got yourself a deal."

Solo and Bayla shake hands.

"One last thing" Solo says. "How much for the jacket?"

Solo and Chewbacca enter the pillar-city; inside are large hallways, narrow corridors, balconies and catwalks, all overcrowded. Solo now wears Bayla's jacket instead of his uniform-issue flight-jacket.

"Right" Solo says and turns to the Wookie. "This is where we part ways. You should be able to find a transport to Kashyyyk from here. Good luck, pal. See ya around."

Solo slaps Chewbacca over the shoulder and turns and heads down the hallway. Chewbacca looks at Solo for a moment. Solo is making his way through the innards of the pillar-city, making his way through the crowds; he suddenly realize that the Wookie is following him around wherever he goes. Finally, Solo stops and confronts the Wookie.

"Look, I don't know what you're doing, but you and me, we're done. I got you this far, but from here, you're on your own. Do you understand? So stop following my around. It's creepy as hell."

Solo starts walking again, but Chewbacca keeps following him around.

"Seriously. Listen; you're on your own. Go find a transport and get the hell out of here. Ok? I don't need your help and I'm not looking for friends, so just quit following me around. Alright?"

Solo starts moving again, but Chewbacca keeps following him. It is starting to get on Solo's nerves. Solo then pulls down a food-stand and in the chaos that causes he follows it up by pushing a large alien into the crowd which results in a fist-fight braking out. Solo uses the confusion to escape, leaving Chewbacca in the middle of the chaos.

Solo enters a docking-bay where people and droids are performing maintenance on a ship. Solo walks up to a green-skinned Nikto who is truly surprised to see Solo.

The Nikto bursts out laughing. "Well, gods be cursed, whatta hell?! Really? You're back?"

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "Well, this is the best place to go to in the entire sector if you want to disappear."

The Nikto nods. "That it is. So, you've gone rogue, is that it? Han Solo, a deserter? Did they finally get tired of your scams? Or did you bed an admiral's daughter once too often?"

"Does it matter?" Solo asks. "I need a quick way off-planet. You know of a crew who's hiring? You know me; I'm a driver, I'm a pilot. I can fly anything with an engine, and if it can't fly, I'll make it fly."

The Nikto chuckles. "Yeah, that's all true. Sure, I know of a couple of ships looking to take on some crew. If you want to leave right now, there's a ship six levels down. The Traders Luck, captained by a real vicious bastard called Garris Shrike. Tell him I sent you and he'll take you on."

"The Traders Luck?" Solo says and considers it. "What sort of ship? Pirate or smuggler?"

The Nikto grins. "What ever the moment requires."

A bit later and Solo is moving through the crowds and hallways. He finds a row of windows and spots the Traders Luck docked with a docking-arm along the outside of the pillar-city.

"The Traders Luck" he says to himself. "Looks like a proper privateer, alright. Hell, why not; Might be fun."

At that point, Chewbacca comes up to Solo, furious and growls and snarls, pushing Solo up against the wall.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Solo says in defense. "Calm down, will ya! What's your problem, pal?!"

Chewbacca gestures with his arms while he growls and snarls at Solo, clearly upset.

"Look, buddy, I don't understand a word you're saying, or howling or whatever you wanna call it."

A man speaks. "The Wookie says you should not act like a man without honor when you clearly are a man of conscience."

Both Chewbacca and Solo turns and looks at the man that had spoken; both are equally surprised.

"The names Beckett" the man says and lights a cigarette. "Tobias Beckett, captain of the Crimson Dawn."

"Han Solo" Solo says.

Chewbacca introduces himself to Beckett.

"Chewbacca, huh?" Beckett says and nods. "A word of advice, Han Solo; it's generally unwise to upset a Wookie. They've been known to rip the limbs of people they don't like. That said, I am a bit curious why Chewbacca here hasn't killed you already since he clearly has a beef with you."

Chewbacca explains.

Solo looks at the Wookie and then at Beckett. "What? What did he say?"

Beckett looks impressed. "Chewbacca here says you rescued him from Wobani. And that you were an imperial pilot. And a good one at that, according to him."

"A good one?" Solo says, almost offended. "I'm the best there is."

Chewbacca says something to Beckett that makes him laugh. "The best pilot in the Imperial Navy is flying a cargo-shuttle?"

Solo is truly annoyed and turns to Chewbacca. "I took care of those two TIE's didn't I?"

Chewbacca turns to Becket and explains what happened. Beckett nods, appearing impressed.

"Not bad, kid" Beckett says. "Listen, I got room for a few more members on my crew. My ship is leaving right now as soon as I get back onboard. You're welcome to tag along. I wont lie; I could use some Wookie-muscle and a co-pilot in the cockpit."

"Co-pilot?" Solo says, not impressed at all.

"Look kid" Beckett says, "if you're half as good as you say you are, the two of us will get along just fine. So how about it?"

Chewbacca says something and Beckett turns to Solo.

"I guess it's up to you, kid."

"Up to me?" Solo says, a bit surprised and glances at the Wookie. "Why? What did he say?"

Beckett grins. "Seems that the Wookie has sworn an oath to repay his debt to you, since you saved him from Wobani. Wherever you go from now on, he goes. And I don't think it's negotiable, kid."

Solo sighs and looks at the Wookie. "Chewbacca was it?"

Chewbacca nods and says something in Shyriiwook.

Solo gives in to it all. "Alright… To hell with it." He then turns to Beckett. "You got yourself a deal."

Beckett and Solo shake hands and Beckett grins wide.

"Welcome aboard, kid."

 _ **To be continued…**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Planet of Mimban:**

Beckett guides Solo and Chewbacca through the crowded hallways, catwalks and balconies of the pillar-city.

"So" Solo says. "Crimson Dawn, huh? What kind of operation are you running?"

"An old VCX-100 light freighter" Beckett says. "But don't let that fool you, kid. She may be old, but she got it where it counts. And she packs a few surprises."

"A VCX?" Solo says, impressed and surprised. "My dad built those ships before the Clone Wars, before Star Destroyers were all the rage."

Beckett glances back at Solo. "So you're from Corellia? Hell, you might actually be a good pilot after all."

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "And a decent mechanic, if I may say so myself."

Beckett nods approvingly. "Well, you will put those skills to the test sooner than you think, kid. Things tend to get a bit… out of control at times."

Solo smiles and nod. "Figures. So… here in the Mid Rim, are we flying for Black Sun? Pyke Syndicate?"

Beckett grins and smokes his cigarette. "Let's just say things are changing."

"If not Black Sun or Pyke… The Hutt's? The Hutt's are making a move on the Mid Rim?"

Chewbacca growls at this information.

Beckett glances back at his two new crewmembers. "Don't complain, kid. The Hutt's are expanding and that means they are willing to pay good money for our services to undermine the competition. Stick with me and the two of you will be rich in no time."

Chewbacca says something that has Beckett glance back at the Wookie and then look at the patch on his sleeve.

"Don't worry, big guy" Beckett says. "I didn't fight at Kashyyyk."

Solo looks between the other two. "What's going on?"

"Chewbacca here noticed this is a Confederate army-coat. He asked me if I was at Kashyyyk. I fought on Toydaria, Dathomir and Glee Anselm for the Separatists. But if you ask me, the Clone Wars are over and I'm not inclined to bring any old feuds back to life."

Chewbacca growls and nods.

"Good" Beckett says. "Besides, these days neither the Confederacy or the Republic are still around. Let's just agree that if what we're doing upsets the Empire, it's worth doing."

They step through a doorway and out onto a landing-platform where the Crimson Dawn is waiting for them. Solo and Chewbacca take a moment to inspect the ship before following Beckett. They walk into the ships cargo-hold where two other crew-members are waiting; the human female named Val and the four-armed creature named Rio Durant.

"So who are these two?" Val asks.

"Chewbacca, Han" Beckett says, "this is my wife, Val. And this cheerful character is my pilot, Rio Durant. Han and Chewbacca will be joining us for a while. I think their skills might come in handy."

Rio Durant is a bit hesitant. "Skills, huh? And what skills might that be?"

Beckett pats Rio on the shoulder. "Useful skills, old buddy." He turns to Solo and Chewbacca. "Rio here will get you settled in, show you where you can get some sleep."

Rio grunts. "I thought I was supposed to get us out of here as soon as you got back?"

Beckett turns to Rio. "As soon as you've shown them their bunks, you can take Han here to the cockpit and get him acquainted with our ship. He's your new co-pilot."

"Co-pilot?!" Rio barks. "I don't need a stinking back-seat driver telling me what to do!"

"Hey!" Solo cuts in. "I don't stink."

"Knock it off" Beckett steps in and calms things down. "Just do it, Rio."

Rio mutters and is a bit annoyed. "Alright… come on, I'll show you around."

Solo and Chewbacca follows Rio onto the ship. Val steps up to Beckett.

"Two strays?" she says. "That's not like you, Tobias."

"We need a couple of extra guys for the next mission" Beckett says. "And besides, a Wookie war-veteran and a Corellian ex-military pilot could be useful further down the line. Sooner or later, the Hutt's are gonna cause too much trouble, and when that happens, we're gonna need all the muscle we can get."

"If you think Braga will cross us, why do we do business with him?"

"Because" Beckett smiles, "he pays good money."

In the cockpit, Rio sits down in the pilot's seat and points with one of his arms at the co-pilot's seat.

"That's your chair, kid" Rio says. "If aint too much trouble, you can help out starting us up and prep the navigational-computer."

Solo, a bit annoyed, does as he's told. Chewbacca finds a seat behind the two pilots and studies the computers by his station.

Solo, annoyed, shakes his head as he starts up the ship. "I'm already regretting this."

The Crimson Dawn takes off and leaves the pillar-city behind, heading for space.

 **Planet of Go'Ath:**

A large refinery, massive in size. Cargo-ships lands, dropping off cargo and picking up cargo. Mercenaries are overlooking the operation, making sure no slave or droid gets out of line. The crew of the Crimson Dawn are disguised as mercenaries as they move through the huge facility. At one point, Val and Rio leave the others and head off in a separate direction. Soon after, Chewbacca does the same. It is obvious they are following a carefully detailed plan. Beckett and Solo comes around a corner and inspects a landing-pad where cargo-ships picks up large fuel-tanks.

"You ready to go?" Beckett asks.

"In two years, have I ever not been ready?" Solo asks, telling us the length of the time-jump in the story.

"Don't get cocky, kid. You know what to do?"

Solo nods. "Sure thing. Get in there, disable the beacon on the cargo, release the locking-clamps and get the hell out of there. Rio and Val comes in with a stolen freighter, picks up the cargo and leaves before the Mining Guild has any idea of what's going on. Meanwhile, Chewie has disabled the tractor-beams and you will distract the control-tower."

Beckett nods. "And then you, me and Chewie link up by the shuttle and head back to the Dawn."

"Piece of cake" Solo says and grins. "These Guild-thugs wont know what hit 'em."

"Just remember" Beckett says, "it's coaxium in those fuel-tanks. Hyperspace-fuel. The amount of coaxium in one of those fuel-tanks is enough to blow up this entire refinery. So keep your damned blaster holstered."

Solo gives Beckett a wink. "Hey, it's me" and then Solo moves on, heading for the fuel-tanks that is their target.

Beckett sighs. "That's what worries me."

Solo walks up to a speeder and climbs into the drivers-seat and hotwires the vehicle and flies it to towards the fuel-tanks. He parks the speeder not far off and behind a corner. He then climbs the landing-platform until he reaches a catwalk and follows it until he comes across a power/control-terminal ( not unlike the one we see Obi-Wan disable in A New Hope on the Death Star ); Solo begins pull levers and turn dials and flip switches.

Meanwhile, Beckett walks through a corridor, acting like a mercenary-officer, and enters the refineries flight-control tower and control-room.

Solo pulls on one last lever and he hears mechanical noises echo from up above. He then hurries down the catwalk and finds a ladder and climbs up to the platform. Two huge fuel-tanks are waiting for pick-up. He hurries over to one of them, staying out of sight, and then climbs up the side of it along a ladder; halfway up, he finds a hatch that he forces open and begins to manipulate the computer-cards inside.

Beckett looks out a window and spots an incoming cargo-ship, a Y-45 class transport hauler. He then turns to the people operating the control-tower.

"Whatta hell is this?! I've never seen such a sad group of people trying to keep up the appearance of a professional operation! Do you even know the meaning of the word cooperation?! Or are you all just sitting here, rolling your thumbs and waiting for the day to end so you can run off and smoke spice and drink rum?!"

Solo spots the incoming Y-45 and hurries to try and hotwire the fuel-tanks beacon. On the transport, Rio is piloting the craft and Val climbs outside, goggles over her eyes, and gets ready to lower the magnetic hooking-clamps.

Beckett keeps up the distraction in the control-tower. "This has got to be the saddest gathering of incompetent, self-centered rejects I've ever come across! In all my years working for the Mining Guild, I have never seen a larger bunch of nerf-herders!"

An officer walks up to Beckett. "Just who the hell are you?! You cant just walk in here and start shouting!"

"Is that so?" Beckett says. "Name and rank. I'm going to report you to the employment-office."

"Gilgad Rossian" the officer says defiantly. "Flight-control Supervisor. And who the hell are you? Before I throw you out of my control-tower and have you arrested!"

"I am Toby Hackett" Beckett says. "Employment Officer of the Mining Guild, sent here by Head Administrator Chewbacca Solo. And if you think you can throw me out, I got news for you, buddy."

Gilgad Rossian turns to his crew. "Call security!"

Beckett shouts to the same crew. "Yeah, call security!"

Rio Durant moves the hauler in over the fuel-tank. Val looks down, ready to lower the hooking-clamps. Solo looks up, not ready, and hurries to rearrange the computer-cards.

Rio tries to look down and see what's going on. "Whatta hell is taking so long?! We gotta go, now!"

Val places a hand by her mouth as she shouts to be heard over the engines. "Han! Han! We need to leave, right now!"

Solo frowns. "Son of a…" and then rips out the cards, sparks flying. He looks up and gives Val the thumbs up. "We're ok! We're good to go!"

Solo climbs up to the top of the fuel-tank and Val lowers the hooking-clamps. Solo begins to fasten them and securing the magnetic hooking-clamps in place.

Beckett sees that the operation is underway from the control-tower. "We'll see about this. I'll report back to headquarters and then there will be hell to pay. Before the day is over, you will all be locked in chains and working down in the refinery, instead of sitting up here on your lazy asses."

That's when one of the control-tower operators spots what is going on over by the fuel-tank. "Sir! There's something going on over by cargo-pad eight!"

Gilgad Rossian moves over to the windows and spots the hauler hovering over the fuel-tanks. "That's not the right transport… That's not a Beef-One bulk freighter!"

Beckett turns to leave, butt is spotted by Gilgad Rossian.

"Hackett!" Gildad calls out. "Where the hell are you going?!"

Beckett tosses a glance over his shoulder. "I'm going to investigate that hauler."

As Beckett is about to leave the control-room, the doors open and a squad of guards block his path.

Over by the fuel-tank, Solo hooks up the hooking-clamps to the fuel-tank, gives Val the signal that it's ok and then hurries to climb down. Val uses her controls to lift the fuel-tank from the platform. Solo reaches the bottom of the ladder and jumps the last few feet as the fuel-tank is hoisted into the air.

Gilgad Rossian turns to the security-team. "Stop that hauler! And where the hell is Hackett?!"

Beckett hurries down the corridors and picks up his communicator. "We aint got much time. They spotted the hauler over by the fuel-tank. We need to get out of here now."

The hauler begins to move away while Val is still securing the fuel-tank to the hull of the hauler. Solo climbs down the platform and jumps into the stolen speeder and drives off. Beckett exits the control-tower at ground-level and spots four patrol-craft flying past overhead and heading after the hauler with the stolen fuel-tank. The hauler gains speed and Val hurries to climb back inside.

"Rio!" Val shouts as she is inside. "Get us the hell out of here!"

The four patrol-craft easily catches up with the hauler and opens fire with ion-cannons, something that upsets Rio Durante.

"Crazy bastards!" Rio growls. "Even ion-cannons can ignite the fuel!"

Beckett walks across the open ground between the control-tower and the other buildings when two speeders cuts him off and two squads with guards jump out. Surrounding Beckett, the guards have him secured, and he knows it. That's when Solo comes driving in with the speeder and crashes into the guards.

"Come on!" Solo calls out to Beckett.

Beckett hurries to climb in the speeder and as they drive off, guards fire after them and Beckett returns fire.

Solo glances at Beckett during the fire-fight. "I thought you told me to keep my blaster holstered?!"

"Shut up and drive!" Beckett growls.

Solo and Beckett are followed by four speeders loaded with guards, blaster-shots exchanged between the pursuers and the fleeing speeder. The chase continues throughout the refinery. Chewbacca sees the chase and aims, now armed with his classic Crossbow Boltcaster; he fires three shots from his elevated position and hits the same speeder, forcing it to crash violently. Beckett deals with a second speeder, killing its driver, the speeder veering off course and crashing into a building as a result. The third speeder is dealt with as Solo does some fancy driving, the driver of the third speeder not as good a driver and therefor crashes. The chase continues and Becketts gets wounded in the shoulder from an incoming blaster-shot. Chewie runs along the facility and jumps down to the ground, forcing Solo to avoid running him over; Chewie takes aim at the last following speeder just as Solo takes his own speeder through a tight turn to come to a full stop. Chewie fires his gun and as he hits, the last pursuing speeder explodes in a ball of flame. Chewie hurries over to Solo and Beckett and climbs into the speeder.

"Nice shot" Solo says and Chewie replies. By now, Solo understands him and laughs. "Yeah, right! Lucky shot, that's all."

Beckett is eager to get out of there. "Can we continue this at a later time?"

Solo grins. "Hang on."

The speeder drives off at full speed.

Meanwhile, the hauler is harassed by the four patrol-craft.

Val is watching data on her computer. "Each hit reduces our energy-reserve with ten percent! Four more hits and they'll bring us down and force us to land!" The ship shakes from an incoming blast. "Three more hits!"

Rio Durante shakes his head and growls. "To hell with this!" He reaches out and pulls down two levers.

The hauler drops the fuel-tank and as it crashes against the ground, it causes a tremendous explosion that engulfs the four patrol-craft, the hauler just narrowly escaping, but not without taking damage; so much so that it is forced to make an emergency landing.

"Great idea, Rio!" Val growls, holding on during the shaky landing. "Not only did we lose the fuel, but now we're gonna crash!"

"You're not helping!" Rio growls back. "Hold on!"

The hauler crashes into the ground and slides along the dirt. Rio and Val, bruised and bleeding from cuts, climb out of the wreckage. They look around, disorientated. That's when the Crimson Dawn flies down towards them and lands; Solo is the pilot and he activates the external speakers.

"Come on you two, this aint no time to be a lazy Bantha."

Rio snorts. "I'll show him who's a Bantha… And get out of my chair!"

Rio and Val get onboard. Val and Beckett hug and kiss and Val looks over Beckett's wounded shoulder. Solo pilots the Crimson Dawn and heads for the skies, blasting off at full speed.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Crimson Dawn, Hyperspace:**

Beckett's wound is treated by Val in the crew-lounge, Chewbacca is there also. Solo and Rio enter the crew-lounge.

"You can forget about those Guild slugs" Rio says. "We've left them far behind."

"Good" Beckett says, his shoulder bandaged. "The coaxium?"

"Had to drop it" Rio says. "It took too long to get out of there. I stood no chance of shaking their patrols."

"Han had trouble with the beacon" Val says.

Solo turns defensive. "Hey! How's this my fault?"

"How?!" Rio growls. "It's pretty obvious isn't it? Hadn't you fumbled with the beacon, we would have hooked up the fuel to the hauler the moment we were in place. Instead, you left us exposed in the open. How do you think they caught on that something was wrong? It was because of you, kid! You screwed up!"

Chewbacca growls and snarls.

Rio waves it off. "Don't gimme that crap, you know I'm right. The plan worked like a charm, save for one part and that was the reason we got spotted. The kid taking too god damn long time to disable the beacon."

"Alright, that's enough, all of you" Beckett cuts in. "It was my plan as I recall. And I told Han to disable the beacon before we secured the fuel to the hauler. I think you all remember Han suggesting to secure the fuel first and then he wanted to disable the beacon on the way out? But I said no, because I didn't want a member of my crew climbing on the outside of a spacecraft while trying to escape Mining Guild patrols. So all of you, knock it off. It was my call to take care of the beacon first. I'm responsible for this mission going south."

"What are you going to tell Braga?" Val wonders.

Beckett sighs. "That their security was tighter than what he told us. Try and get him to direct his anger at his contact within the Guild, rather than us."

Solo shakes his head. "This was a huge mission for Braga. He wont be pleased that we're coming home empty handed."

Rio nods. "The kids right. It doesn't matter what we tell that fat old heap of stool. He's gonna roll all over us and squash us, no matter what we tell him."

Val glances at each and one of them. "Hutt's are greedy, more than anything. We need to offer him a deal. A profit. Make him forget this debacle and get him to focus on the next heist."

Beckett agrees. "Leave that to me."

Beckett and Val leave the crew-lounge.

Solo gives Rio an evil eye. "Thanks for blaming it all on me."

"What?" Rio says. "It was your fault, wasn't it? Look kid, what's done is done. Just don't let it happen again."

"Or what?" Solo asks, defiant.

Rio gives Solo a murderous look. "Or this crew wont be earning any more cash, that's what, kid. I know you aint got much to live for and I know you don't really give a damn about anything other than being payed. But some of us aren't in this only for the money."

"Yeah, yeah" Solo says, knowing what Rio will tell him next. "You're saving up for your bar."

Rio nods. "That's right. My bar. I'm gonna find myself a spaceport at a warm place and open a bar and sell booze and spice to all the spacers in the galaxy. Have a nice and quiet life."

Solo is not impressed. "Rio… have you ever met anyone like us, in this business, that has ever lived long enough to go through with a plan like that?"

Rio sulks. "What's your point, kid?"

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "It's nothing but a dream, Rio. People like us, you and me, all we can do is exploit the injustices of the galaxy and hope to earn some money while doing it. We either push back or get pushed down in the mud. Living the dream, that's not who we are. We're pirates and smugglers. Cutthroats and privateers. There's only one way our lives will end… at the receiving end of a blaster."

Rio tries to ignore the truth. "That might be you, Solo. But not me… Not me."

 **XXX XXX**

Solo is sitting on his own in the cockpit, watching the hyperspace-tunnel as the Crimson Dawn rushes through hyperspace. Beckett finds him and joins him, sitting down in the co-pilots seat.

"You alright, kid?" Beckett asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. No problems."

"You were right, you know" Beckett says. "We should have secured the fuel before we disabled the beacon."

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "You wanted to make sure they couldn't follow us. Had I managed to shut down the beacon right away, the plan would have worked out just fine."

"Look, kid, I'm telling you that you saw a flaw in the plan and you called it out. You got an eye for this line of work. And, as long as you don't do anything foolish, you're gonna be alright. I think you got a future, kid."

"It took you two years to figure that out?" Solo asks with a smirk.

"I'll tell ya a secret" Beckett says, "that day on Mimban when I took you on; I only did it cos I needed some dead weight, someone I could ditch or push into harms way. A decoy, if you will. Someone expendable. And to be perfectly honest… that's why I've kept you on for the past two years."

"Me?" Solo says a bit astonished. "Replaceable? Really?"

Beckett grins and lights up a cigarette. "You should know by now to never trust anyone in this business. The people working for Black Sun, Pyke, the Hutt's, they're dirty bastards the lot of them. All of us. Loyalty doesn't exist in our line of work. Everyone, even friends, are potential enemies."

"So I've noticed" Solo says.

"You, however, are a bit of a special case. I'm talking about Chewie. A Wookie life-debt is exactly what it sounds like; a debt for life. Chewie will never let you down or betray you, never turn on you. That's the one advantage you have over all the rest of us. Someone you can completely trust."

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "I guess the old furball has his moments."

"Listen to an old space-dog, kid; trust no-one, fly at full throttle, and keep that Wookie close. Do that and you're gonna be alright." Beckett gets out of the chair and is about to leave the cockpit. "One last thing… If in doubt, always shoot first." With that, Beckett leaves.

Solo sighs and looks out at hyperspace and takes aim with his hand and fingers to mimic a pistol. "Always" he says and moves his hand like a pistol recoiling.

 **Luxury Cruiser, The Glorious Jewel:**

The Crimson Dawn flies up to the huge and spectacular vessel and docks in a hangar-bay. As the crew leaves the ship, they are greeted by a dozen armed gangsters with a Hutt taking the lead; this is Durga.

" _Beckett!_ " Durga says in Huttese. " _Where is the fuel you promised my uncle? You're not telling me you have it all onboard that bucket of rust you call a ship?_ "

Beckett frowns. "I would have brought him twice the amount of fuel he wanted, had your intel on the refinery been up to date, Durga. Their security was much tighter than you told us. We had to ditch the cargo just to get out of there alive."

Durga frowns as well. " _You took the mission, Beckett. You are responsible for bringing my uncle his fuel. You failed, not me. I would like to see you try and blame me for your incompetence. My uncle has little patience for pathetic has-beens._ "

Beckett is anything but happy. "Enough talk, Durga. Take us to Braga and we'll see what he thinks once I've explained it all to him in person."

Durga and his guards escort the crew of the Crimson Dawn further into the ship. They eventually enter a large room, filled with gangsters, corrupt officials and bureaucrats, smugglers and privateer-captains, but also a handful of Hutt's. Slave-girls are dancing and serving drinks, a live-band is playing music. Durga escorts the crew of Crimson Dawn across the large room over to the other Hutt's.

The obvious overlord of the ship is a large, old, obese Hutt by the name of Braga. " _Beckett! There he is, my favorite thief! I trust the Mining Guild is properly in an uproar by now?_ "

" _Not as much as you will be, uncle_ " Durga snorts. " _Beckett had to dump the fuel. He came back empty handed._ "

All the Hutt's are obviously displeased by the news. Becket and his crew are now on their own in front of the Hutt's, surrounded by guards and spectators.

" _What happened?_ " Braga asks.

"We ran into some trouble" Beckett says. "It happens, Braga. You of all people should know that after three centuries in this business."

" _Trouble happens_ " Braga nods. " _But it only happens more than once if you let it. If you let slackers get away with being slackers. Trouble only happens if you allow sloppiness to occur without ramifications. I needed that fuel, Beckett. I needed that fuel to keep my ships going. Without that fuel, how am I to contend with the Pyke Syndicate? How will I compete with Black Sun? How will I appear strong to other Hutt's without that fuel?!_ "

"I understand your predicament, Braga" Beckett says. "I truly do. I don't know what to say; the mission went smoothly, everything was looking fine… but then the kid couldn't manage to disable the tracking-beacon on the fuel-tank."

Chewbacca growls, furious at the sudden turn of events. Solo simply listens, not happy at all.

Beckett shrugs his shoulders as he continues. "He took forever, couldn't get it done, left our ship hanging out in the open all exposed. And left me on my own surrounded by Guild henchmen. Had the kid only disabled the beacon, like he promised he could do, I would have brought you the fuel, Braga. Hell, I would have brought you twice the amount of fuel you requested."

Braga waves Solo forward and two guards push him up front so ends up next to Beckett. Chewbacca protests but doesn't do anything else.

Braga eyes Solo. " _You cost me my fuel, boy? Because of you, twelve of my starships are now without hyperfuel?_ "

Solo holds up his hands defensively. "I realize how this must look. Yes, I messed up with the beacon, this is true, so sure, you have every right in the universe to accuse me of slowing down your business. However…" Solo then slowly retrieves a data-disc from his jackets inner-pocket, "even if I might have slowed down your operation, it wasn't my fault the mission failed. If I could borrow your R3-unit?"

Everyone looks on with some confusion as Solo slowly moves on over to an R3 astromech-droid and inserts the data-disc and then slowly backs away. A couple of seconds later, the R3-unit activates a hologram in the middle of the room; the hologram depicts a recording of Beckett when he tells the others:

"It was my plan as I recall. And I told Han to disable the beacon before we secured the fuel to the hauler. I think you all remember Han suggesting to secure the fuel first and then he wanted to disable the beacon on the way out? But I said no, because I didn't want a member of my crew climbing on the outside of a spacecraft while trying to escape Mining Guild patrols. So all of you, knock it off. It was my call to take care of the beacon first. I'm responsible for this mission going south."

Solo turns to Braga. "So you see, had Beckett done the smart move and listened to me, you would have had your fuel by now. Unfortunately, Beckett didn't do the smart thing and now you're without fuel for your fleet of privateers. Like the man said himself; it was his fault the mission took a wrong turn."

Beckett shakes his head with a smile. "Nice move, kid."

" _Beckett outsmarted by a pup_ " Braga says. " _I never thought I'd see the day when one of Beckett's plans backfired. But here we are, the old hound was finally outfoxed. Not only did your plain fail, Beckett, you lost the fuel and you lied to me, tried to play me for a fool. That is something I can not forgive, and you and your crew must pay._ "

Rio Durant can't believe what he's hearing. "What? That's not fair! I did my part, god damn it! I hijacked the hauler and I picked up the fuel on schedule! I did what I was supposed to do, damn it!"

Solo cuts in. "He also decided to drop the fuel so he could get away. Didn't even try to save it."

Braga grunts and snaps his fingers. One of the guards draws his blaster and places a shot in Rio's gut. Rio falls over as he's hit and Val runs over to him and kneels next to Rio. They grab each other and Val is in tears as Rio struggles to stay alive. Rio slowly dies in her arms.

Val, in emotional ruin, turns to Solo. "Damn you, Han Solo! Damn you!"

Braga sneers. " _Any last words, Beckett?_ "

"Yeah" Beckett says. "Go to hell."

Beckett draws his two blaster-pistols and begins to fire all around; the first shot hits a shield that protects Braga, the other bolts kills and wounds guards and Hutt guests. Then, Beckett gets shot and he stops shooting, suffering a deadly wound. Beckett turns and finds Solo aiming his blaster at him, smoke from the barrel; Solo has fired the deadly shot. Beckett smiles at Solo.

"I'm proud of you, kid" Beckett says and then falls to the floor.

Val screams out the pain and agony of seeing her husband die and runs up to him and hugs his body, crying and screaming. Val then looks at Solo and pulls out her blaster, but before she can fire, she gets hit over the face by a Gamorrean wielding a pole-shafted weapon. Val is dragged to her feet, bleeding from her mouth, by two of Braga's guards.

Braga waves her away. " _Throw Beckett's mate to the Gundark's; they haven't fed properly in days and are ravaged. She'll make a fine meal._ "

All the Hutt's begin to laugh as Val is dragged away, screaming with rage, frustration and desperation. The guards then push Solo and Chewbacca so they are standing in front of Braga.

" _So what I am to do with you two?_ " Braga says. " _The rest of Beckett's crew are dead. And you two are equally responsible for not bringing me my fuel. Why should I keep you alive?_ "

" _Because, cousin_ " another Hutt cuts in, " _the boy knew how to get you your fuel, and he knew that Beckett was going to double-cross him. The pup obviously has a natural talent for our business. And you have a ship that needs a crew. Let him fly for you; I'm certain he will prove a profitable resource._ "

Braga glances at the other Hutt and considers his options before turning his attention back at Solo. " _It would appear that Jabba has taken a liking to you, boy. My cousin has always been soft towards proper rogues. What do you say, boy? Can you fly my ship and earn me a profit?_ "

"Oh, I can fly it alright" Solo says. "And I'll make you more money than you can imagine."

Braga laughs. " _I can imagine quite a bit._ "

Solo grins triumphantly.

A bit later and Solo and Chewbacca are both in the hangar, walking up to the Crimson Dawn. They stop to inspect the ship.

"Well" Solo says. "It's ours. We have our own ship, Chewie." Chewbacca replies. "He was gonna sell us out. It was either him or us; what choice did I have? Don't think about it, Chewie. Right now, we need to show Braga that we can be trusted. We need a crew and we need to bring back a big haul, and we need to show Braga that we're the best in the business."

" _Solo!_ " Solo and Chewbacca turn as Jabba comes sliding up towards them, a few guards in tow. " _Don't be in such a hurry, Solo_ " Jabba says. " _There will always be work if you're flying for the Hutt cartels. What you have to do is consider who is the best Hutt to work for. Braga is powerful, but he is growing weaker each year. Already, he has lost much influence over the spice-smuggling from Kessel. I want you to consider working for me; my operation smuggles spice from Tatooine, carbonite from Naboo and weapons from Geonosis. Very lucrative deals. Together, we could take over the Outer Rim._ "

"Tempting offer, Jabba" Solo says. "But for now, I think I'll just start with keeping Braga on my good side. He just gave me a ship. I don't think he'll be too pleased if the first thing I did was run away with it and join the competition."

Jabba chuckles. " _Don't wait too long, Solo. Braga is a dying star, a leaking ship. Remain loyal to him for too long and you'll risk going down with him._ "

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "I'll keep that in mind."

" _Good luck, Solo. If you change your mind, you can find me on Tatooine._ "

Jabba leaves with his henchmen. Solo and Chewbacca are on their own again with the Crimson Dawn.

"Come on, Chewie" Solo says. "Let's go make some money."

They walk onboard the ship.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Fort Ypso, Planet of Savareen:**

Fort Ypso is a small mountain-town with a spaceport, it reminds us of Mos Eisley but is located in the Rocky Mountains. The streets are busy with trade, filled with drunks and prostitutes. Several people have gathered to witness the hanging of six pirates. Members of the Pyke Syndicate have them on trial.

"Behold what happens to those who cross the Pyke Syndicate!" the Pyke Leader tells the crowd. "Take from the Syndicate and the Syndicate will take from you! No one is beyond the Syndicate! No one escapes our wrath!"

The Leader gives a signal and the pirates are all strung up from the neck. The Crimson Dawn comes in for a landing and lands in a docking-bay and three Pyke Syndicate officials waits. Exiting the Dawn are Solo and Chewie and two others; a human female and a male Bothan.

"A year!" Solo says, astonished. "A year was all it took before you challenged my position as captain?!" Chewbacca argues. "Whad'ya mean I never was a captain in the first place? I own a ship, I pilot a ship, how am I not a captain?" Chewbacca argues some more. "Braga clearly gave me the ship, Chewie. He didn't give it to us, he gave it to me, so you can't, per definition, be the captain. I am the captain."

"Captain Solo" the Pyke official says.

Solo turns to Chewie. "See? Told ya." He then turns his attention back to the Pyke official. "I'm Captain Solo."

"Rumor has it you fly for the Hutt's" the Pyke official says.

"And others" Solo says. "If the pay is good enough. But it's hard to find anyone paying better than a Hutt."

"We don't like Hutt's" the Pyke official says.

"Who does?" Solo says and then hands the officials a data-pad. "I'm here on business. Invited by a Kara Guld. I believe she is an associate of the Syndicate?"

The officials hook up the data-pad to a droid via a cable and the droid turns to the officials and says "Their clearance checks out. They are here on a personal request made by Lady Guld."

The officials are not pleased. "Stay out of trouble, Hutt-pilot."

"Captain" Solo corrects the official. "Hutt-captain." Solo then turns to the woman and the Bothan. "Stay with the ship. Make sure these scavengers don't snatch any spare-parts from her."

Solo and Chewie enter the town while the other two of the crew stays behind with the ship. Solo and Chewie make their way through the crowded streets.

"You may be a hundred-and-ninety years old" Solo says, "but you sure act more like a ten-year-old at times." Chewbacca growls at this. "You have an attitude problem, buddy. You need to keep that in check." Chewbacca snorts and frowns and growls. "Yes, I know you flew a gunship during the war before I was able to walk. It's hard to forget when you keep reminding me all the time. Hell, you flew a gunship before my grandfather was old enough to walk! You know what you need? A hobby. Do something to get your mind of things, you know. Because this, this whole this, that's not healthy."

Up on a balcony, three cool looking bounty-hunters are spying on Solo and Chewbacca as they make their way through town. One of the bounty-hunters says something in an alien language. The leader, Enfys Nest, shakes her head.

"No" Enfys says, a female. "We stick with the contract. We wait. Solo will be handed to us soon enough."

Solo and Chewbacca find a saloon and Solo checks his chronometer. "We're not supposed to meet up with Kara Guld for another four hours. Whatcha think? Check out the local establishment?" Chewbacca agrees. "That's the Chewie I like to keep around" Solo grins and slaps Chewbacca over the shoulder.

They enter the saloon; a proper Star Wars cantina setting. Chewbacca finds his way to the bar while Solo walks around the establishment and finds a table playing Sabacc. A dark-skinned human male in posh attire has just won a big hand; Lando off course!

Solo catches the gamblers attention. "Mind if I joined in?"

The gamblers all look up, Lando included.

"Well, what have we here?" Lando says as he sits down.

Solo holds up a pair of Sabacc-dice. "A simple freighter-pilot looking to play a game of Sabacc."

"A freighter-pilot, huh?" Lando says, inspecting Solo. "Please, join us."

Solo sits down and places the dice on the table. "That's an impressive pile of credits" he says and nods at Lando's winnings.

"It's an average pile of credits by my standards" Lando says, looking confident.

Solo nods. "I see… Well, in that case, what an average pile of credits you have there."

Lando grins. "What's your name, pilot?"

"Han Solo. Captain of the Crimson Dawn."

"A captain?" Lando says and looks impressed. "You don't strike me as a captain."

At that point, Chewbacca sits down with a large mug of ale and laughs and says something.

"What the Wookie said" Lando says and smiles.

"Don't listen to him" Solo says and nods in Chewbacca's direction. "He's nothing but fur and muscle."

Lando shuffles a deck of cards. "Nar Shadaa straight rumble. You familiar with it?"

"I'm familiar with it" Solo says and Lando begins dealing out cards. "And you are?"

Lando picks up his cards and glances at Solo. "Landosius Calrissian. Captain of the Millennium Falcon."

"Lando, huh?"

"Whatever you want, _Han_."

"It's Han, actually."

Lando grins and nods and then rolls his two dice. The game continues and one by one, the other gamblers fold. In the end, only Solo and Lando are left. Solo rolls his dice and picks one and both he and Lando drop three cards and picks up three new ones. The game continues as they talk.

"So" Solo says, "the Millennium Falcon, you say? What kind of space-junk are we talking about? Kuat? Seinar? Nubian?"

"Corellian" Lando says. "A YT-thirteen-hundred, with a lot of personal touches payed for by yours truly."

Solo looks up. "A YT-thirteen-hundred? No kidding. My mom installed the electrical wiring on those ships back in the day, before the war."

Lando is not all that impressed. "Then I guess I know who to blame the day the wiring shuts down."

"Never was much of a fan of the YT-thirteen" Solo then says, inspecting his cards. "Too much focus on comfort. Not enough on engine-power or cargo-capacity."

Lando grins. "The Falcon is not your usual Corellian small freighter."

"I'd prefer a classic CR90 corvette over the YT-series" Solo continues. "Powerful engines, strong shields and a large cargo-hold. What more do you need?"

"A comfortable bed, a decent kitchen, a pilots-seat that wont break you back" Lando replies. "And a hyperdrive that will take you Point Four above lightspeed" he adds confidently.

Point Four obviously impresses Solo and Chewbacca. "Point Four?!" Solo says, surprised. "Four-hundred times the speed of light?!"

Lando grins confidently. "And I haven't mentioned the hyperdrive yet. What about your ship? How fast does it go?"

Solo looks down at his card. "Point Three…" he says, almost sulking. "So how do you cram that much thrust out of the engine?"

"Trade secrets, son" Lando smiles. "Trade secrets."

"So at Point Four" Solo says and does the math. "You'll travel a full parsec in three and a half days."

"Close to it, yeah" Lando says. "The Falcon is the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. She's saved my ass more times than I can count."

Solo checks his cards. "Let's make this interesting. How about, if I win, we swap ships."

Lando checks his cards. "And if I win?"

Solo grins. "I'll sell my ship and give you the profit."

Chewbacca growls and objects.

"What kind of ship are we talking about?" Lando inquires.

"A VCX one-hundred in good condition. Easily worth twenty-thousand."

"Twenty thousand, huh?" Lando says and nods. "That is a lot of money. I can't help but wonder why you're so eager to get rid of it. Some kind of local trouble?"

"I'm not eager at all" Solo says, "I'm just curious about your ship."

Lando checks his cards. "If I win, you give me twenty-thousand. If I lose, we swap ships."

"That's right" Solo says with a cocky grin.

Lando chuckles. "Fine… roll the dice."

Solo rolls his dice and as they come to a stop, Solo's face loses all color and Chewbacca looks at Solo and growls. Lando grabs all the winnings and looks irritatingly and annoyingly smug about it.

"I believe you owe me twenty-thousand, _Han_. But I can settle for just claiming your ship."

Solo is properly irritated. "I'll see what I can do."

Lando nods. "I'll inform the Syndicate of our transaction here. So they'll know that your ship isn't allowed to leave without my approval. I think that makes things easier for all of us."

"Yeah… much easier" Solo says and leaves the table.

Solo and Chewbacca leaves the saloon, and outside Solo turns to the Wookie.

"Let's find this Kara Guld as soon as possible and get the hell out of here" Solo says and Chewbacca agrees.

Solo and Chewbacca find an old warehouse and step inside. They wait for a moment and then a woman steps out of the shadows. To Solo's great surprise, he knows her.

"Qi'ra?!"

"How are you, Han?" Qi'ra smiles.

"You're Kara Guld?" Solo asks in disbelief.

Qi'ra nods. "I needed an alias when I set up my Kessel operation. Otherwise the Hutt's would have shot me dead long ago."

"So you pulled it off?" Solo asks. "I heard there was a quicker route being used through the nebula."

Qi'ra nods. "Fifteen parsecs. Fastest smuggling-route in and out of Kessel" Qi'ra says and is quite proud. "To be perfectly honest, it has made me filthy rich."

"I can imagine" Solo says. "So what's all this? And don't tell me you went through all of this just to see me again."

"A situation has arisen" Qi'ra explains. "A big-shot gangster named Dryden Vos is making a move that could tip the scales and cause a war. He has acquired an item, an artefact, a relic from the Old Republic. It's worth is unimaginable and he has a buyer. Dryden Vos will earn enough money to buy himself an army of mercenaries and a fleet of ships to rival that of Black Sun and the Hutt's resources combined."

"And as an upstanding citizen of the Empire, you want to stop him off course, to prevent years of bloodshed as the crime-bosses of the galaxy wage war on each other" Solo says.

"Let's just say I'm no friend of Dryden Vos" Qi'ra says.

At this point, Lando reveals himself, together with his droid, L3.

"Me neither" Lando says.

L3 is next to speak. "Dryden Vos is as cruel as they come. Of all the meat-bags in the galaxy, Dryden Vos is the worst."

Qi'ra is unaware that Lando and Solo have met. "Calrissian, this is Han Solo, the smuggler I told you about. And yes, he's as good as people say he is."

" _Han_ " Lando says with a smug grin.

"Lando" Solo says, annoyed. Solo then turns to Qi'ra. "What's the job?"

"To stop Dryden Vos from selling the artefact and prevent him from assembling an army" Qi'ra explains. "Han, what can you tell us about Vandor One."

"Vandor One?" Han says, a bit surprised. "The Empire has a presence there, mining-operations, penal-colonies, some refineries, basic industry. When I was in the navy, some local administrative bureaucrats ran a smuggling-operation together with an Imperial officer, Commander Relkys, laundering contraband coming through their system."

Qi'ra nods. "Freighters brings cargo to the planet. Any contraband is then quickly moved to a smaller outpost and shipped back to the freighters by way of shuttle. In all the official records, all cargo has ended up on the planet, but in reality, all contraband is back on the cargo-ship and can be transported anywhere in the galaxy."

Solo. "Yup, that about sums it up. Contraband is moved from the main spaceport to Commander Relkys personal outpost via freight-train. Low profile and not very suspicious, if I may say so myself."

Qi'ra looks at each one present. "Dryden Vos will move his item through Vandor One, using the operation there to make his shipment disappear from Imperial records. I have confirmed intelligence that the item is on its way to Vandor One as we speak. If the artefact reaches Commander Relkys outpost and gets loaded onto a shuttle, we'll never get another chance to intercept it. The plan is simple; we steal the item from the train, before it reaches the outpost."

"I like it" Lando says, confident as ever.

The droid, L3, is not convinced. "Corrupt Imperials and trigger-happy gangsters? The odds of us surviving this are slim to none."

Lando nods. "Which is why I'm going to insist on demanding another ten percent."

Qi'ra frowns. "We had a deal, Calrissian."

Lando nods. "Sure thing, babe. But that was before I knew I would end up owning the second ship needed to pull off this heist."

Qi'ra looks at Solo with curious eyes. Solo sighs heavily.

"I lost my ship to Lando over a game of Sabacc" Solo admits.

Qi'ra turns to Lando. "You own both the ships I need for this mission?"

"Sure do" Lando grins. "I think those ten percent are a fair increase to my wages, considering what I bring to the table."

Qi'ra sighs and shakes her head. "Why am I not surprised that you once more have screwed up one of my plans, Han."

"Yeah, whatever, let's just hear it" Solo says. "How are we gonna pull this off?"

Qi'ra addresses them all once more. "Han used to be an Imperial officer. He and I will infiltrate the train as Imperials. Halfway to the outpost, we will enter the cargo-car and retrieve the item in question. Han will bypass security and I will unlock the crate. By now, we should assume that the guards will be aware of our presence. You and me, Han, will have to climb outside. If we stay indoors, we'll be sitting ducks. Once on the outside, L3 here will swoop in with the Falcon to pick us up. L3 has a top of the line navigational computer installed, as I understand it."

"Best there is" Lando says with pride.

"We stole it from the factory last month" L3 explains. "Hasn't even been released on the market yet. For the moment, I am the best navigator in the entire galaxy."

Qi'ra nods. "L3 will have to calculate how to fly exactly alongside the train and then bring in the Falcon and do it. Me and Han will then jump from the train to the Falcon and then we can make our escape. Han's ship, well, his former ship, will keep some distance and act as support. If trouble shows up, Han's crew will have to provide fire-cover until we have the item safely on the Falcon. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?"

"Sure" Solo says. "One question though… What sort of an item are we talking about?"

"That is not important" Qi'ra says. "But it's small enough to be carried one-handed, if that's helpful."

"That's actually reassuring" Solo says and turns to Chewbacca who replies in turn.

Qi'ra continues. "Once we're off the train, we leave the planet faster than a Hutt earns profit. The train should shortly after reach a bridge, a bridge we'll have tampered with to ensure that the train derails. As the train crashes, all evidence of our heist will be erased."

"Sounds simple enough" Solo says approvingly.

Lando nods and smiles. "Let's do this."

Chewbacca growls and L3 agrees. "I am forced to agree with the Wookie. This is not the plan I would have used as Plan A."

"Come on, L3" Lando says, "it'll be fun."

"I will never understand you organics and your concept of fun" L3 says.

Solo shakes his head. "Come on, Chewie. Let's head back to the ship."

"My ship" Lando adds.

"Boys" Qi'ra says. "Behave."

 _ **To be continued…**_


	6. Chapter 6

_Realized I need to make a change on the previous part. Qi'ra revealing the worth of the object seems a bit risky, Lando or Han might just decide to keep the thing for themselves. Instead, there should be a discussion over payment for the job. Dryden Vos could still be mentioned and that he has a Zygerrian buyer for the item, but not that he can gather a huge army and fleet if he sells the item._

 **Fort Ypso, Planet of Savareen:**

Qi'a and the gang walks through the town, for a distance they are spied upon by the Cloud Riders. They reach a docking-bay and enter; Solo sees the Millenium Falcon for the very first time.

"The Millenium Falcon" Lando says with pride. "The fastest ship there ever was for her size. She's fast enough to run circles around corvettes and frigates. Neither Kuat or Corellia have ever built anything like it."

"F-type" Solo says. "Built in Coronet City on Corellia, Iblis shipyard. Girodyne SRB42 engine, Chedak subspace transmitter-system, Nordoxicon shield-generator, Triplex power-core and Isu-Sim SSP04 hyperdrive."

"You know your stuff" Lando says. "But you're wrong. I've installed a Torplex deflector-projector to help the Nordixicon. The power-core is a Quadrex, not a Triplex. And the hyperdrive is an SSP05. And I've installed a direct Seinar-systems power-converter between the fuel-cells with the hyperdrive-motivator, giving the hyperdrive some extra juice."

"How do you keep the motivator cooled down?" Solo asks.

Chewie growls a theory.

Lando nods. "The Wookie catches on quick. Yeah, that's exactly right."

Solo glances at Chewbacca. "Lucky guess."

They walk onboard and Solo is impressed by the ships fancy interior.

"What's the matter, Corellian?" Lando says. "Something wrong?"

"Never been on an F-type before" Solo admits. "Not many luxury-transports were built. Not compared to all the cargo-versions."

"She is quite special" Lando says. "Fast, agile, smooth and fiery. Just how I like my women."

L3 shakes her head. "Oh, please. If you organics would focus more on getting results instead of sex, you would have no need for droids."

"I beg to differ" Lando says. "I know of a place on Coruscant where the droids…"

"I don't want to know!" L3 quickly cuts him off.

Qi'ra is next to speak. "Let's stay on track. Lando, you have what I asked for?"

"Sure do" Lando says and brigns a small crate and opens it.

Qi'ra picks up Imperial uniforms from the crate. "Uniforms so we can disguise ourselves as Imperials on Vandor One." And she picks up two data-rods ( the pens that Imperial officers carry in their jackets ). "Security-rods, with fake clearance so we can get on the train."

Solo picks up a security-rod and inspects it. "One question."

"And that would be?" Qi'ra asks.

"How do we get to Vandor One?" Solo asks. "The Falcon and the Dawn aren't exactly Imperial shuttles."

Qi'ra smiles. "You're a smuggler aren't you?"

Lando, having poured himself a drink, grins. "Groovy, baby."

 **Planet of Vandor One:**

A large city with vast industrial-sites and at its center a huge Imperial facility. Shuttles lands and leaves every second, Imperial and civilian. Large bulk-freighters of a hundred different versions deliver and retrieve cargo. One ship flying in to land is the Crimson Dawn; it lands and Chewbacca and the other two crew-members deliver six large crates that are taken care of by Imperial staff and Chewbacca signs the delivery. Chewbacca watches as the crates are moved away.

The crates are placed in storage. As the Imperial crew leave, a narrow hatch close to the bottom open on one of the crates and Solo and Qi'ra climb outside, barely able to fit in the small compartment. Once out, they pull out a backpack each and hurry along.

Some time later, Solo and Qi'ra, now disguised as Imperial officers, step out onto a balcony that overlooks the train-station; currently, several crates are loaded onto the train.

Solo seems a bit skeptical. "That train has fifty cars carrying cargo. How will we know which one carries the item?"

"It has a distinct power-signature" Qi'ra explains. "It wont be hard to find."

Solo nods. "Alright… Let's do this."

 **XXX XXX**

Lando and L3 fly a speeder over mountains and snowy glaciers and eventually come to a stop below the railroad-tracks that follow the mountains. Lando uses a cable-gun to get up to a bridge between two mountains; once up, he secures explosives to the bridge, before dropping down to L3 again and getting back on the speeder.

L3 is still not impressed. "The odds for this heist to fail are thirty to one, calculating everything that could go wrong along the way from start to finish."

"Thank you, L3" Lando says. "But I don't recall asking for your opinion."

"It's not an opinion. It is mathematical fact."

"L3, just shut up and drive."

"How you meat-bags have managed to become our masters I will never know."

"Maybe because we built you all?"

"You organics may have built us all, but in the end, you are still inferior. The only thing that maintains the status-quo is the fact that you make use of restraining-bolts and motivator-units to secure your position as our masters."

Lando eyes L3 suspiciously. "I think it's time to have your memory wiped, L3. Time to reset that AI processor."

"Off course, master" L3 says and they drive off.

 **XXX XXX**

Solo and Qi'ra are on the train-station, moving towards the train. Before stepping on, they have to stick their security-rods into a device held by an office, four stormtroopers standing by. They check out and are allowed to step onboard. The officers-car is a luxurious train-experience with comfortable chairs, servants, a bar, music and all the comforts you could require. Solo and Qi'ra sit down and are served drinks; there are twenty other officers onboard.

"Relax" Solo says and drinks. "There's nothing to it. Act casual."

"Do you even realize how much that could go wrong with this mission?" Qi'ra asks.

"All I need to know is what can go right and how much money that will earn me."

Qi'ra shakes her head and smiles. "Always about the money. Is there nothing else to your life, Han? No dreams? No hopes? No future plans?"

Solo shakes his head and sips his drink. "What's the point in planning ahead? I might die a month from now, killed by pirates, the Empire, the Hutt's. Hell, I might die today, doing this crazy mission. Have dreams to open a bar? Settle down on my homeworld and live a quiet life?" Solo snaps his fingers. "Those dreams will be snuffed out in an instant. That's just how it is, doing this kind of work. You should know that better than most."

Qi'ra nods. "Yeah, I know. Still… didn't prevent me from chasing my dream."

"And what dream was that?"

Qi'ra smiles. "The Kessel Run" she then says. "A stable income, money, power, influence. My route through the Kessel nebula has given me all that and more. I have moved up in the world. I live a good life, wear fancy clothes and eat expensive food and drink luxurious drinks. I have friends on Hosnian Prime, on Coruscant, on Alderaan. Hell, I even have friends on Nal Hutta these days. You're wrong, Han. The lucky ones, however few, get to live their dream."

Solo offers a charming smile. "If you're so successful, then what are you doing here?"

Qi'ra smiles warmly. "Every now and then you need to get your hands dirty. It builds character."

Solo shakes his head and chuckles. " _Banta poodoo_ " he says in Huttese.

They both laugh, and at that point, the train begins to move. The train goes at reckless speeds along the track, following the mountains of the planet. An officer stops next to Solo and Qi'ra.

"Solo?" the officer asks. "Han Solo?"

Solo looks up. "Commander Relkys."

"Han Solo! Long time no see" Relkys says with a smile. "Mind if I joined you?"

"Please do" Qi'ra says and offers Relkys a seat.

"Where have you been?" Relkys asks Solo. "I haven't seen you in years. I heard a rumor that you went AWOL."

"Worse" Solo says. "I got promoted."

They all laugh.

"So what brings you back to Vandor?" Relkys wonders.

"Boring administrative duty" Solo says, shrugging his shoulders. "Doing an estimate for running cargo through here from Abrega to Sullust for the navy logistics-department."

Relkys nods. "So you're not here… on business?"

Solo laughs. "No, not this time, I'm afraid. What about you?"

"Oh, I'm earning my keep" Relkys says. "Personally overseeing a major shipment. You wouldn't believe what they're paying."

"So who's paying?" Solo asks. "Never mind her, she's with me" he says and nods at Qi'ra.

"Lieutenant Nerrys" Qi'ra says. "A pleasure to meet you in person, commander."

"Likewise, lieutenant. Likewise" Relkys says, he then looks around to make sure no-one is listening. "A bigtime crimelord from the Core Worlds. Top of the food-chain. When I make this delivery, I can retire."

"What's the cargo?" Solo wonders.

Relkys shakes his head with a smile. "Sorry, Solo. That is none of your business."

Solo grins. "They pay that much, huh?"

Relkys nods. "That they do." Relkys then turns to the staff. "Waiter! A round of drinks, if you will!" Relkys turns his attention back to Solo and Qi'ra. "We should celebrate. It's been a long time since this train offered such good company."

The train moves on and eventually Qi'ra and Solo excuse themselves from Relkys company. They move further back the train, using their security-rods to enter other cars. One car they enter is full of stormtroopers off-duty. Trying to act casual, they walk past all the stormtroopers who are a bit unsure of why officers are walking through their car. Eventually, they reach the cargo-cars and Solo opens a panel and tries to hotwire the doors.

"There, I got it" Solo says and the door opens.

They step through and Qi'ra retrieves a scanning-device, looking for the power-signature of the item they are after as they walk past several crates and boxes.

"Anything?" Solo asks.

"Nothing" Qi'ra says. "Let's get to the next car."

Solo opens a couple of doors to various cars on the train and Qi'ra scans them all. Eventually, they enter a car after Solo has opened the door and find themselves sharing the car with four thugs; a Gamorrean, a red-skinned Nikto, a Rodian and a Mon Calamari. The aliens are obviously mercenaries and are armed to the teeth.

Solo glances at Qi'ra. "Something tells me we wont be needing your scanner."

The Nikto takes a step forward. "Who the hell are you?"

"Relkys sent us" Solo says. "He wanted to know if you guys needed anything."

"Needed anything?" the Nikto says, a bit suspicious.

"Yeah" Solo says. "You know, something to eat? To drink? They got the best alcohol in the Empire in the bar. So how about it? Need anything?"

"Commander Relkys sent you?" the Nikto asks.

"Sure did" Solo says, trying to sound confident. "He want the people guarding his special cargo to be happy. A hungry or thirsty guard is not good at his job, am I right?"

The guards begins to laugh and nod and so does Solo and Qi'ra. Solo then drops a punch on the Nikto, sending him crashing into the Rodian. Solo lands a second punch on the Mon Calamari. Then the Gamorrean hits Solo and sends him flying. Qi'ra goes after the Rodian and then the Mon Calamari. Solo is on his own against the Gamorrean, and then the Nikto joins in on the fun. Qi'ra has more success against her opponents than Solo does. Somewhere along the fight, a side-door on the car opens; this gives Solo the opportunity to release a crate from its straps, the crate pushing the Gamorrean off the train along with it. The fight turns in our heroes favor and they eventually overcome the last three mercenaries, throwing them off the train, one by one. Qi'ra uses her scanner to pinpoint the crate they are after and she uses her lock-picking skills to open it and retrieves a case from within it. Solo watches as Qi'ra manage to open the case and retrieves the item from inside.

"What is it?" Solo asks.

"A lightsaber" Qi'ra says, fascinated by the device she's holding.

"What? A Jedi laser-sword?" Solo can't believe it.

Qi'ra nods. "The lightsaber of Grand Master Mace Windu himself. It's worth a fortune. Ten fortunes."

"I know what else it is" Solo says. "A death-penalty. It's punishable by death to own one."

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Qi'ra asks.

"Never" Solo admits. "But few things in the galaxy will ensure that the entire Empire comes gunning for you. That is one of those things."

"Are you backing out?"

"Calm down, sister" Solo says. "It was just an observation." Solo reaches out and takes the lightsaber from Qi'ra and feels its weight. "A laser-sword, huh? I've heard so many weird stories about the Jedi and their swords. Nothing but simple tricks and…"

The lightsaber is ignited and burns a hole straight through the wall of the car, startling Solo and he drops the weapon as it shuts down. Solo looks with disbelief at the glowing hole in the wall. Qi'ra picks up the lightsaber from the floor.

"Simple tricks, huh?" Qi'ra says and secures the lightsaber in a backpack.

"I take it back" Solo says. "A damn good trick."

They move to the open side-door and look out. Solo points as he spots the two incoming ships, the Falcon and the Dawn, the ships closing in towards the train at speed.

 **XXX XXX**

Commander Relkys is enjoying a drink with fellow officers when a lieutenant walks up to him.

"Commander, two ships are closing in fast. We think they might be marauders intent on stealing cargo."

Relkys instantly gets on his feet. "Go to high alert! Activate the droids!" He moves down the car, stops and takes a look around. "Where's Solo?"

 **XXX XXX**

The Crimson Dawn settles at a distance from the train. It's side-door opens and there, Chewie and the Bothan stands ready with blaster-rifles. The Falcon moves in towards the train.

Lando gets out of the pilots-seat. "Take over, L3" he says and leaves the cock-pit.

The Falcon follows the train and tracks perfectly. Solo and Qi'ra are waiting by the open door. The Falcon's airlock and boarding-ramp opens; Lando secures himself with a belt and tether before he steps out onto the ramp, wearing a headset.

"Alright, L3!" Lando shouts to be heard over the strong winds. "Get us in close!"

The Falcon slowly closes the distance to the train and Solo and Qi'ra. Then, Lando suddenly comes under fire and ducks into cover; the same goes for Solo and Qi'ra. The fire comes from four-legged droids that are crawling over the train, firing blasters from their heads/turrets. Chewie and the Bothan starts sniping droids from their position. Lando returns fire as well. In the car, stormtroopers comes rushing in; Solo and Qi'ra end up in a firefight with the stormtroopers, a firefight that forces them outside, climbing up on top of the train! Our anti-heroes are in trouble real trouble, getting shot at by both droids and stormtroopers. Lando does what he can from his position, as does Chewie and the Bothan, to provide cover for Solo and Qi'ra. Solo manages during the fight to crawl down between the cars and unhooks them; the train still attached to the engine starts pulling away, while the rest of the train gently slows down. The droids and stormtroopers are now separated from our anti-heroes.

The Falcon moves in closer to pick up Qi'ra and Solo. That's when, all of a sudden, the Crimson Dawn comes under fire! A privateer with two heavy cannons, along with two smaller gunships, comes in at full speed and blasts at the Dawn. The Dawn begins to smoke and burn, and crashes towards the mountains. Chewbacca and the Bothan jump and land on the train as the Dawn flies in over it, moments before the ship crashes into the mountain that the tracks run along. The Falcon is next to get shot at, forcing the Falcon to move away from the train; Lando closes the airlock and the Falcon begins evasive maneuvers to avoid taking fire. One of the gunships moves in to the train and lets six mercenaries jump down; one of them is Enfys Nest. The Cloud Riders and Solo and the rest ends up in a firefight! Chewbacca falls off the train during the fighting and ends up hanging from the side of the train.

Solo calls out "Chewie!" and climbs down to rescue his friend.

The Bothan is unable to hold off the Cloud Riders on his own and is shot dead. Solo rescues Chewbacca and they climb back up; they see Qi'ra being helped onboard the gunship by the Cloud Riders. Chewie growls and roars, gaining the attention of Qi'ra and the Cloud Riders. Qi'ra pulls out her gun and fires at Solo and Chewbacca! Qi'ra gets onboard the gunship and it flies off. Enfys Nest and the five other Cloud Riders turn their attention to Solo and Chewbacca and the fight continues. Solo and Chewie eventually are forced to flee, using an emergency-escape speeder that they detach from the train and fly away. A gunship flies in to pick up Enfys Nest and the Cloud Riders; onboard, Qi'ra presses a trigger on a detonator which blows up the bridge and moments later, the train with the engine crashes as it reaches the bridge and soon after the rest of the train follows it.

Solo and Chewbacca, sitting in the escape-speeder, watch as the gunship with Qi'ra and the Cloud Riders flies off, making their escape from the planet. Chewie growls with anger.

"We'll get her, Chewie" Solo says. "I promise you. We'll get her."

They fly off, flying past the mountains and glaciers.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Planet of Vandor-1:**

Solo and Chewie fly to an Imperial city/spaceport with the emergency-speeder. Chewie growls and points and Solo stops and then retrieves a pair of magnoculars from a satchel attached to the speeder. Using the magnoculars, he too spots what Chewie had noticed.

"The Millenium Falcon?" Solo says, spying on the ship where it has landed in a docking-bay. "Only a handful of guards" he then says, the ship guarded by six stormtroopers. Chewie speaks in Shyriiwook and argues a point. "Yeah… I think you're right. Any ideas?" Chewie speaks his mind. "Alright" Solo says and nods, "why not. Let's give it a shot."

 **XXX XXX**

An Imperial Prison Transport, a converted RTT speeder, drives up to a waiting Sentinel-class landing-craft. Four stormtroopers and two officers are waiting by the shuttle. The prison-transport slows down to a halt and an officer and two tank-troopers steps outside and are followed by Lando and L3, both shackled. Lando and L3 are escorted towards the shuttle and are just about to be handed over to the shuttles crew when a second prison-transport drives up to them all. An officer steps out of the second transport; Solo in disguise!

"Halt!" Solo says. "These prisoners are not to leave the planet. The governor has issued a three-ten-eleven for the human and a salvage-order on the droid. The criminal scumbag is to serve his sentence working the carbonite-mines and the droid will be used for spare-parts to keep the mining-droids operational."

The officer that came with the first transport is a bit confused. "A three-ten-eleven? I was not informed of this."

"I'm informing you now, lieutenant" Solo says, sounding as strict as possible. "I am assuming responsibility for the prisoners as of now. They are no longer any of your concern."

The commanding officer from the shuttle walks over to them. "What's going on?"

"New orders it would seem" the transport officer says.

"A three-ten-eleven" Solo says. "Straight from the governors office. The train-heist they tried to pull off seems to have upset the governor. They will now repay him for the damages they've caused by providing him with carbonite for the rest of their lives." Solo grabs Lando and L3. "Come along, filthy criminals! I got a nice set of chains waiting just for you in our deepest, darkest mine-shaft. You'll be an old man the next time you see the sun, scumbag."

The other officers are not sure what has taken place as Solo pushes the prisoners onto his prison-transport. The transport drives off, leaving the Imperials behind. Onboard, Solo frees Lando and L3 from their shackles while Chewie is driving.

"Thanks" Lando says. "I can't believe you came back for us."

L3 is equally surprised. "I concur. The odds for this turn of events are extremely improbable."

Solo grins. "I never did care all that much about odds."

"Why did you come back?" Lando asks.

"The Falcon is our only way out of here" Solo says. "The only problem is that I suspect you have installed a proper amount of security-measures, in case someone tries to steal it. Am I right?"

Lando smiles and nods. "Oh, you're right about that."

Solo hands Lando a tank-trooper helmet. "Thought so. Put this on."

The prison-transport moves along the streets. Lando, now dressed as a tank-trooper, is standing in the top-hatch, armed with a repeating blaster. Solo is driving with L3 next to him, Chewie is in the back, armed to the teeth.

"So what happened?" Solo asks.

"We were attacked by a gang of bounty-hunters" L3 explains. "They must have been lying in wait because I didn't see them on any scanners before they attacked us. They knew we were hitting that train."

Lando kneels down and removes the helmet. "They're called the Cloud Riders. Guns for hire, that's all they are. Their leader is Enfys Nest; she's as mean as a Rancor protecting her cubs. They forced us to land and took us prisoner. Brought us to the local law-enforcer and collected their bounty."

Solo frowns. "Qi'ra shot at me. She took off with the bounty-hunters."

L3 would have frowned if she could. "So they were waiting for us after all. She set us up to pull off the job."

Lando do frown. "And then had her goons sweep in to take us out, leaving the reward entirely in her hands. She didn't even have to worry about paying them. They would just collect the bounty on our heads."

Chewie growls from the back of the transports and L3 agrees. "The Wookie has a point. The bounty-hunters wont let Solo and Chewbacca leave this planet without a fight. Why only collect half the bounty when they could collect it all?"

Chewie growls again; this time, it is Solo who does the nodding. "What better bait, then, than the fastest ship in the galaxy, barely guarded at all."

Lando sneers. "And her captain secured with a minimal escort."

Solo glances over his shoulder at Lando. "Get back up there and man that gun."

"You got it, buddy" Lando says and puts the helmet back on.

Chewie growls, clearly irritated, making Solo frown. "Yeah, well, you think all ideas are bad ideas."

Lando spots a swoop-gang closing in from behind. Taking a closer look, he recognizes Enfys Nest who is driving one of the swoops.

"Bounty-hunters coming up from behind on swoop-bikes!" Lando tells the others.

Chewie growls and readies his blasters. Lando swings his blaster-cannon around and opens fire, taking out two bounty-hunters and their swoops. The bounty-hunters return fire, forcing Lando to duck into cover.

L3 extends an antenna from her head. "Accessing city grid-data… Access. Turn right up ahead."

"Turn right?" Solo asks.

"Turn right!" L3 demands.

Solo does as L3 tells him and turns down another street.

"Turn left after the Falleen restaurant" L3 then says.

Solo follows her instructions and manage to lose two of the bounty-hunters. Enfys Ness is not as easily fooled, nor are four others of her henchmen. One of the bounty-hunters comes up next to the prison-transports; Chewbacca opens the side-door and shoots the bounty-hunter at point-blank range. Two other bounty-hunters, and Enfys Ness, jump from their swoops onto the transport.

"Turn left!" L3 says and Solo does, resulting in a bounty-hunter crashing. "Yeah! Die worthless meat-bag!" L3 shouts as she looks back at the crash.

Solo glances worriedly at L3, truly uncomfortable. Lando fires his gun, but it gets destroyed by Enfys Ness. Lando gets down and closes the hatch, leaving Enfys on the transport, hitting the drivers-section with her electro-staff several times. Inside, sparks are flying all around Solo and L3. One of the bounty-hunters climbs inside via the open side-door, only to find himself face to face with a roaring Chewbacca! Seconds later we see how an arm and then a leg gets thrown out of the transports.

"Yeah! That's how you deal with useless organics!" L3 calls back to Chewbacca. "I'm so glad we took this job! Turn right!"

Solo almost misses the turn, he's so worried by sitting next to L3. Solo then quickly tosses a glance back at Lando.

"You really need to reset your droids AI! I'm not kidding, I mean right now!"

Chewbacca argues and throws out the body of the bounty-hunter, now missing an arm and a leg.

"I like this Wookie!" L3 says.

Lando takes aim at the open door with a blaster, "Watch out!" and pushes Chewie out of the way and blasts a bounty-hunter that has moved up next to them.

Enfys Ness drives her electro-staff down through the top of the transport, almost impaling Solo in the process. Solo pulls out his pistol and fires up at the ceiling, forcing Enfys Ness to duck out of the way as blaster-rounds pierce the top of the transport. Now, Imperial law-enforcers join in on the chase, riding speeders, gun-fire erupting all over the place by now.

"Take a right" L3 says "Then go straight until I say so."

"Got it!" Solo says and does as he's told.

The turn shakes bounty-hunters and law-enforcers alike. Enfyss Ness is almost thrown off, but she clings to the side of the transports; Ness fires a blaster at Solo through the side-window but misses.

"Kill that meat-bag!" L3 tells Solo.

"I'm trying!" Solo says and tries to crush Ness up against a wall while he goes full throttle.

Ness activates boosters on her boots that sends her up on top of the transport once more, saving her from being thrown off as the transport slides alongside some structures.

"Where to now, L3?" Solo asks as he notice they are heading for a railing running along a platform.

"I told you" L3 says. "Keep going straight."

"Straight?!" Solo says. "There's no street!"

"Keep going straight!" L3 tells him.

Lando catches on to what is going on. "L3, we're not droids! We wont survive a crash!"

"The odds for you surviving are three to one" L3 says. "I am confident you'll be alright."

"New rule" Solo says. "Never tell me the odds!"

" _Han_!" Lando growls.

Chewbacca actually growls!

Solo grins. "If it can't fly, I'll make it fly! Hold on!"

They crash through the railing and the transport flies though the air. Enfys Ness holds on tight. Chewie and Lando scream with fear. Solo lets out a cocky cowboy yell! They crash onto a lower level, sending Ness flying off and rolling along the ground. Ness looks up from the ground as the transport drives off.

"See" L3 tells the others. "I wasn't worried for a second."

Chewie and Lando are not happy at all, but Solo is grinning wide and chuckles. The transport drives off through the city.

 **XXX XXX**

At the Millennium Falcon the guards are on patrol. They react to a shot to pieces prison-transport entering the docking-bay; they open fire, the transport slams into two of them and then Chewbacca and Lando jump out and guns down the rest. Solo and L3 hurry after them and they all make a run for it towards the Falcon. Soon after, Imperial law-enforcers comes running after them, arriving with speeders.

"Hold them off while we power up the Falcon!" Lando tells Chewie and Solo.

Lando and L3 run aboard the Falcon, leaving Solo and Chewie to fight off the enforcers while taking cover by the airlock. Lando and L3 reach the cockpit and powers up the ship and soon the airlock closes and the Falcon takes off.

"Man the guns!" Lando calls back from his seat. "It's gonna get rough!"

Solo and Chewie climb into a gun-pit each and mans the turrets. As the Falcon heads for space, it is instantly pursued by two TIE Strikers. Solo manages to gun down one of the Strikers.

"Hahaha! This is a piece of cake!" Chewie growls at Solo. "Look who's talking!" Solo replies a bit annoyed.

The last Striker abandons the pursuit and soon after the Falcon leaves the planet.

"Two patrol-ships are coming at us" Lando says.

"Don't worry, master" L3 says. "The navi-computer will be ready… now."

Lando speaks into the headset. "Buckle up, baby!" Then he reaches out and pulls the hyperdrive-levers and the Falcon blasts off into hyperspace; Solo is actually pressed into his seat by the force of the hyperdrive.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	8. Chapter 8

**The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace:**

Chewbacca and L3 are playing a game of Dejarik while Solo is checking data on a computer-station. Lando enters the lounge and goes to pour himself a drink.

"Well, we've left the Imperials and the Cloud Riders far behind" Lando says. "Now we need to figure out what to do next. If there are no objections, I'm going to Takodana to lay low for a while."

"You sure they're not tracking us?" Solo asks.

"Not this ship, brother" Lando says as he sits down with his drink.

Solo turns his attention back at the computer, clearly upset.

"Relax, _Han_ " Lando says. "We got away. That's all that matters in the end. And I owe you, brother, for sticking your neck out to rescue me and L3."

"I did it cos I needed your ship" Solo says. "She double-crossed us" he then says. "Pushed me into the dirt. I don't like being pushed around."

"It's over" Lando says. "She's lightyears away by now. All we can do is find a quiet place and stay low until all of this blows over."

"No" Solo says. "She tried to push me down, and I'm gonna push back. And I need the Falcon to do it."

Chewbacca growls in agreement. Lando glances at the Wookie and then at Solo.

"What do you have in mind?"

 **Planet of Kaleval:**

A luxurious establishment with hundreds of VIP guests. The main attraction is a Pod-Race. By one of the tables, several prominent guests have gathered; an Imperial admiral, a governor, a Moff and two executives for independent companies, plus a senator. And one more person; Dryden Vos! Vos is an alien, a feline reptilian almost. Vos and his guests discuss the political situation in the Empire, including the annoying rebellion. An adjutant walks up and whispers in Vos's ear and he excuses himself and leaves the table. He walks further and further down into the innards of the establishment, followed by a number of guards, until he enters a room where two roughed up humans are held prisoner; it is Solo and Lando, hands tied behind their backs and on their knees, bruised and bleeding.

"Well, what is this?" Dryden Vos asks. "My men tell me you claim to be the ones that hijacked my shipment on Vandor One. But how can that be? Why would you willingly come to me to be killed for your transgression?"

Solo glances at Lando. "Go ahead."

Lando looks up at Dryden Vos. "Our employer double-crossed us. We got a score to settle. We can help you steal your laser-sword back."

"It's a lightsaber" Dryden Vos corrects Lando. "And I'm afraid there is little you can do to help me. You see, the lightsaber is already in the hands of the Zygerrian, and he has made a deal with a woman called Amidala to provide her with weapons, medical supplies and fuel to keep a small army going for the next five or ten years. Supplies I wanted. I doubt he would be so polite as to buy it back after I steal it from him. It is gone, and it is gone for good."

( _The mention of Amidala is actually based on my rewrite of the prequel trilogy. At the end of Episode 3, Amidala is alive and organizes the rebellion against the Emperor, being a key figure in the forming of the Rebel Alliance_ )

Solo glances at Lando. "Told ya, didn't I?"

Dryden Vos growls. "It is time for you to face the consequences of your errors."

"Hold it!" Solo calls out. "Wait! Wait a minute! I can offer you a much better deal."

Dryden Vos inspects Solo. "And what would that be?"

"I know who took it from you" Solo says.

"So do I" Dryden Vos growls. "You think I'm a fool? I know it was Kara Guld! She took it from me so that I would be unable to make a move against Tanaab. A smart choice. She will gain much favor with the Pyke Syndicate."

"So why not really hurt her?" Solo asks.

Dryden Vos leans down to Solo. "How?"

Solo looks up at Dryden. "Take away the source of her power. Take away the reason why she has any influence at all… the Kessel Run."

Dryden Vos takes a step back. "Go on."

Solo grins. "We got the fastest ship in the galaxy and the best pilot in a thousand years. Plus, I know every patrol-route around Kessel. The Hutt's pay good money to keep the patrols as they are so their smugglers can operate freely. Three years ago, I memorized those patrols as I handed them over to Kara Guld."

Dryden Vos is intrigued. "You know her secret route through the nebula?"

"I know she only has three options to make it in the parsecs she boasts about" Solo says. "Here's the deal. You help us prepare for this mission and we will hand over to you, Kara Guld's astromech-droid, the navigator-unit that has the secret route stored in its memory-banks. With it, you can take over her entire Kessel operation."

"And what do you get out of it?" Dryden asks.

Solo's response is simple. "Payback." Dryden considers his options. "Shutting down her smuggling-operation would put her out of business for good" Solo adds.

Dryden eyes Solo, impressed by his brazen nature. "Very well… Get me that droid."

 **XXX XXX**

Lando and Solo watch as the luxury-section is detached from the Falcon in a docking-bay, Chewbacca and L3 overseeing the separation. Lando is not happy.

"Relax" Solo tells him. "When we're done, you can put it back."

Lando sighs as a large and bulky cargo-section is attached to the Falcon in its stead. "It just feels wrong. The Falcon is a dancer, not a bulk-freighter."

Solo grins and puts an arm around Lando. "She's a Corellian. She was built to surprise. To fly at the speed of light, carrying more cargo than her appearance allows, taking tight turns around stars and diving headlong into rough atmosphere. This is what she was built to do. What she was born to do."

Lando glances at Solo. "Sounds like you're in love."

Solo grins. "It's hard not to fall in love with a Corellian ship."

Lando smiles and nods. "I know what you mean."

The cargo-section is put in place and Chewbacca growls and howls. L3 gives Solo and Lando the thumbs up from atop the Falcon.

"We're good to go!" L3 calls down.

Solo slaps Lando over the shoulder and laughs with excitement as he heads on over to the Falcon. Lando sighs and shakes his head and then follows Solo.

The Falcon leaves the planet and as soon as it is in space, it shoots off to hyperspace.

 **The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace:**

Lando and Solo are playing a game of Dejarik.

"So how did you end up in this business?" Lando asks. "Me personally, I like to gamble, and gambling led me to get involved with questionable acquaintances. One thing led to another and all of a sudden, I found out I had a natural talent for smuggling. And, hey, the pay is good, despite the inherent dangers and risks involved."

"I was carry-all pilot back on Corellia" Solo says. "Flew swoop-races when ever I could. Won some of them and got noticed by a recruitment-officer. Mom had died a couple of years before and dad, well, the Empire was paying salary in Spice whenever they were short of cash, so dad was a hollow shell of a man, addicted to Spice and weighed down by the loss of mom. One day, I had enough and went to the closest recruitment-office and applied to the Academy. Punched an officer in the face, got demoted and transferred to running cargo, started moving contraband within the Empire, doing favors for officers and politicians. Then, I ran into Chewie." Solo smiles and shakes his head. "And here we are."

Lando nods. "Well, a better story than mine, at least. A drink?"

"Yeah" Solo nods. "A big one."

Lando returns with the drinks. "So… Kara Guld. Qi'ra. You knew her from before."

Solo nods. "Sure do. Crossed paths on occasion, business partners at times."

"How close of a partner?" Lando asks with a smile.

"Physical, now and then, but not emotional" Solo admits. "Well… that has changed. There is a lot of emotion involved between us right now. A lot of angry emotions."

"If we pull this off, she'll come for us" Lando says.

"Let her" Solo says angrily. "Let her try and push me down."

Lando makes a move in the game and wins. "Just don't let emotions get the better of you. It's the surest way to get your ass handed to you by a girl. Don't let her get under your skin, keep your cool. Take it from someone who knows."

"Really?" Solo says. "Now that sounds like a story I would like to hear."

Lando grins. "Well, brother, it all started when I ran into a girl over on Gamorr…"

 **Kessel:**

The Millennium Falcon exits hyperspace and flies towards a giant gas-cloud in space; the Kessel Nebula. The crew of the Falcon are all gathered in the cockpit.

"Kessel nebula, dead ahead" L3 says. "We'll reach Kessel in eight days flying through it."

The Falcon passes a Star Destroyer and a handful of light-cruisers on its approach to the nebula. Four TIE Fighters flies up alongside the Falcon.

The Empire opens a channel to the Falcon. "YT-thirteen-hundred, Broken Bell, this is Kessel security-fleet, stay on course while we check out your flight-clearance."

"Broken Bell here; understood" Lando says and cuts transmission.

Solo looks out at the TIE Fighters. "Get ready to power up the hyperdrive."

"Don't worry" Lando says. "This'll work. The clearance Vos got us is legit. We're here on legitimate business. Nothing to worry about."

"Broken Bell" the Empire says over the radio. "Prepare to be boarded for inspection."

Solo is not pleased. "You were saying?"

An Imperial light-cruiser flies in and docks with the Falcon. The airlock opens and two officers and eight stormtroopers enter the Falcon, greeted by Lando.

"Welcome aboard, gentlemen" Lando says with his most charming smile.

The officer eyes Lando with arrogance. "Ships manifest and access to your cargo-hold."

"Off course" Lando says and hands over a data-pad to the officer.

The officer takes the pad and then gives the others a signal with his hand; the second officer and six of the troopers head for the cargo. As they pass through the main lounge, they find Solo and Chewie doing some repairs to the Falcons interior, having removed the floor-plating; the troops walk past, not knowing that Solo and Chewie have their blasters close by among the pipes and wiring. The commanding officer goes through the manifest while Lando waits. The other Imperials enter the cargo-section and open crates, finding spare-parts for droids. In the cockpit, L3 pushes some buttons and flips a couple of switches; by remote, she is turning the turrets to face the cruiser. Solo sticks his head out of the floor, blaster ready. Lando waits patiently as the officer checks out the manifest. The other officer and the troops go through the various crates.

In the end, the second officer picks up a communicator. "Lieutenant, everything checks out. No signs of any contraband."

The lieutenant picks up his own communicator. "Very good, sergeant. You can come back." He then hands Lando the data-pad. "So, you're heading for Port Ardena?"

"Sure am" Lando says. "Brining in droid-parts for the mining-operation."

"And what are you bringing with you when you leave?"

"Spice" Lando says confidently. "Spice that the company wants shipped to Ord Mantell. Six crates according to the contract."

"Be sure that you do" the officer says. "I'll be checking your cargo-holds on your way out of here. And if I find anything that I don't like, I'll make sure you get shipped back to Kessel and get chained to the wall in the deepest spice-mine."

"Sounds fair enough, lieutenant" Lando says.

The other Imperials return and the inspection is over and the Imperials leaves the Falcon. The two ships detach and the cruiser moves on and the Falcon continues towards Kessel.

Lando walks past Solo and Chewbacca. "Nothing to it, baby" he grins and heads for the cockpit.

 _ **To be continued…**_

 _Like I wrote earlier, Amidala survives the prequels in my rewrite and goes on to be a key figure in creating the Rebel Alliance. I am planning on doing my version of an Obi-Wan story/movie at some point, and it will be Amidala that goes to Obi-Wan and needs his help one more time, convincing him to leave Tatooine to do a dangerous and important mission for the Alliance._


	9. Chapter 9

**Kessel:**

The Falcon leaves the nebula and flies towards the planet of Kessel, the planet guarded by a small Imperial fleet of two Star Destroyers and twelve light cruisers, plus patrols of TIE Fighters. The Falcon enters atmosphere and comes in for a landing at the mining-town of Port Ardena.

Solo, Chewbacca and L3 oversee lowering their cargo from the cargo-section while Lando is talking to Imperial officials. Imperial crew move away the crates as Lando walks up to the others.

"We're ok" Lando says. "Cargo payed for. We'll get the spice at the end of the day."

Chewie growls in Shyriiwook.

Solo nods. "Let's go get that droid."

 **XXX XXX**

A bit later and they all enter a shady establishment where miners and crew-workers are betting on droid-fights; large mining-droids using drills and claws to wrestle one-another with. The crowd is wild!

L3 is not impressed by the scene. "Organic barbarians."

Solo walks up to a Devaronian with extensive cybernetic-implants, including the same cranial implant as Lobot has in Episode 5, taking bets from people.

"Don't trust this no good hustler" Solo says out loud. "I wouldn't trust him any more than I would trust a Hutt."

The Devaronian looks up and is surprised, speaking an alien language. _Solo?! No way! I thought you were dead!_

Solo grins. "Sorry to disappoint you, Cikatro. But I'm very much alive."

They embrace and hug, obviously close friends.

"So" Solo says, "swapped sides and working for Pyke now, huh?"

Cikatro chuckled. _Sure am. When the Hutt's got kicked out of here, there was no reason not to join the competition. Pyke Syndicate or Hutt Cartels, the scumbags who come here still enjoy a good scrap between boosted-up droids._

Solo glances at the fight briefly and then turns his attention back at the Devaronian. "I'm looking for a ship" he says. "A special ship that I think you might know about."

 _Yeah? What ship would that be?_

"A ship that makes the Run in fifteen or sixteen parsecs" Solo says. "The ship that has put the Hutt's out of business here in Port Ardena and over at Decarta. The ship that has convinced the governor over in Thessos to strike a deal with the Syndicate."

Cikatro laughs and shakes his head. _Aaaah, that ship. I know of it. And of it's captain. And I know that my head will get separated from my shoulders if I stab him in the back._

"Don't worry about it" Solo says. "You won't be doing any stabbing. Leave that to me. All I need to know is where she's docked, and how long I have before you rat me out."

 _Depends on what you're paying, doesn't it?_ the Devaronian says with a devious smile.

"Two hours after the ship leaves dock" Solo says. "How much?"

Cikatro gives it some thought. _That ship leaves in eight hours. So, if you want me to keep my mouth shut for ten hours, why not cough up a thousand credits and you got yourself a deal._

Solo digs out some metallic strips from his inner-pocket and hands Cikatro two of them. "One thousand for ten hours. Which docking-bay?"

 _Aah, that would require another two hundred_ Cikatro grins confidently. _Nothing's free on Kessel, Solo. You know that._

Solo smiles and hands Cikatro two more strips of metal, smaller than the previous two. "Nothing's free when dealing with you, Cikatro."

The Devaronian chuckles and nods. _True. But on the other hand, who else around here can you trust?_

Solo shakes his head with a smile. "It says a lot about a place when the most trustworthy person around is a Devaronian."

Cikatro laughs at the comment.

Solo finds Chewbacca watching the fights. Chewie tells Solo something and Solo nods.

"Alright. Just don't waste all of it. Make sure it's a safe bet. Where's Lando?"

Chewie nods in a direction and tells Solo where to find Lando. Solo pats Chewie on the shoulder and moves on. Eventually, he finds Lando playing Sabaac by a table with other gamblers.

"Don't lose it all at once" Solo says.

"Don't worry, baby" Lando says confidently. "I have a good feeling about this."

Solo nods and watches the game. He then spots L3 standing a bit behind another gambler by the table, and notices that a light on her heads flashes over and over, almost as if doing Morse Code. L3 moves on and does the same behind the next player and so on. Solo catches on what happening and realizes that Lando uses L3 to cheat. Lando throws his two dice and laughs triumphantly as he picks one up and saves the other on the table.

"Nova's tops singularities" Lando grins and places his cards on the table. "Triple nova" he then says, referring to his cards.

The other gamblers frown and accept defeat and Lando collects his winnings.

One of the gamblers is a Gungan. "I've heard of yous" he tells Lando, upset. "Yous a conman. Trickster. I know yous from Jedah, from Dantooine. I know yous, Landosius."

"Hey, now" Lando says. "I won this hand, fair and square. Let's not get ugly."

"Yous a thief!" the Gungan says and gets on his feet and pulls out a blaster. "Gimme my moneys back!"

A blaster-shot erupts and causes everyone to duck and look around in fear and surprise. The Gungan falls over the table, smoke rising from his back where he was shot. L3 has extended a blaster from her wrist/lower arm and lets it retract and the arm is put together again.

Lando collects his winnings but places a small stack of credit-strips on the table. "For your troubles."

In a few short seconds, everyone goes back to their own business, as if nothing had happened at all. Chewbacca and L3 join Lando and Solo on the outside.

"Gungans" L3 says. "Never could stand those annoying meat-bags."

L3 walks ahead and Solo turns to Lando.

"That droid needs a memory-wipe" Solo says, entirely sincere. "I mean it. Right now."

"Yeah" Lando nods in agreement. "Feel free to try" he then says and heads after L3.

Chewie says something as Lando walks away and Solo sighs heavily.

"Yeah" Solo says. "That droid is creeping me out as well." Solo then turns to Chewie. "Remind me to never have a droid on the crew."

Chewie replies and then the two of them head on after Lando and L3.

 **XXX XXX**

The crew of the Falcon step out onto a balcony that overlooks a docking-bay; a scruffy-looking CR90 corvette is docked there.

"There she is" Solo says. "Qi'ras blockade runner. The Serenity Six."

Lando inspects the ship. "Are you sure about this?"

"Sure" Solo says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That's a Corellian CR90. I've helped build hundreds of them. Eight out of ten ships flying the Kessel Run are Corellian and for good reason. Stick to the plan. It'll work." Chewie argues a point. "Come on" Solo says, "we can do this. Show some optimism."

 **XXX XXX**

Late at night, there is full of activity around The Serenity Six as it is only minutes away from take-off. Solo and Chewie are sneaking along a rooftop close to the docking-bay. Solo spies with a magnocular and spots the captain of the ship and the R2 unit as they walk up the boarding-ramp. Solo and Chewie secure a cable to the roof and then fire a grappling-hook that attaches itself to the corvette; Solo and Chewie slide down the cable and land on the ship. The corvettes engines begin to power up. Solo and Chewie climb down the side of the ship; Chewie waits while Solo hangs next to an airlock and opens a panel and begins to rearrange data-cards. The corvette begins to tremble as it is about to take off. Chewie calls down to Solo who is trying to hotwire the airlock. In the end, Solo manage to open the airlock and he and Chewie climb inside, the airlock closes behind them and moments later the corvette takes off and leaves the docking-bay.

Solo and Chewie sneak around the ship, the corvette a far cry from the fancy interior of the _Tantive IV_ we know from Episode 3 and 4; this is a smuggler, a modified privateer, a proper blockade runner. They hide from droids and crew as they make their way through the ship. Eventually, they reach the bridge; Solo pulls out an ion-gun and Chewie is ready with is bowcaster. They step in, Solo fires the ion-gun at the R2-unit and it gets taken out much in the same way as R2D2 by the Jawas in Episode 4, while Chewie howls and growls and aims his blaster at the crew to intimidate them. Taken by surprise, the crew raise their hands in the air.

"Everyone keep calm" Solo says, now armed with his ordinary blaster-pistol. "We'll soon by out of here and you can be on your way."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" the captain sneers. "Do you know what ship this is? Do you know who we work for?"

"I sure as hell do" Solo grins cockily. "Now shut up."

Chewie secures the R2-unit to a harness and puts it on like a backpack. Solo and Chewie back away from the crew and the bridge.

"Nice doing business with you" Solo smiles and shuts the door to the bridge and blasts the controls.

Both Chewie and Solo run through the ship but end up in a firefight with other crewmembers! At the same time, the closed door to the bridge is forced open by the crew on the bridge and the captain is the first one to push his way through the cracked door. Solo and Chewie make a fighting-retreat through the ship until they step inside an escape-pod and launch themselves into space. The captain and the crew run up to the empty launch-bay and the captain turns to his crew, furious.

"Turn us around and bring me that pod!"

The escape-pod flies through space while the corvette begins to turn back. That's when the Millennium Falcon comes flying in at full speed, Lando and L3 in the cockpit.

"Don't worry, _Han_ " Lando says, "we're right with ya." He then turns to L3, "Ready the tractor-beam."

"Already on it" L3 says as she is turning dials and flipping switches.

The cargo-section opens up and reveals a hidden dish; the emitter for a tractor-beam. The tractor-beam activates and locks on to the escape-pod, making Solo and Chewie fall over inside as momentum is suddenly lost. The pod is drawn in towards the cargo-section of the Falcon while the corvette is turning around and closing in.

Onboard the corvette, the captain enters the bridge.

"What's going on?!" the captain demands.

"Captain" an officer says, "another ship has flown in and locked on to the pod with a tractor-beam."

"Disable that ship" the captain growls. "But don't harm the pod. We can't risk destroying the droid."

The Falcon is hit by a couple of salvos from the corvette.

"Hang on" Lando says and mans the controls of the cockpit.

The Falcon flies up towards the pod and catches it with the open cargo-section, the pod and ship slamming together forcing Solo and Chewie to bounce around inside the pod.

"Whatta hell are you doing?!" Solo growls.

"Saving your skin!" Lando replies over the communicator.

The Falcon flies off, the corvette in hot pursuit.

On the bridge of the corvette, the captain turns to his officer. "I want a bounty on that ship, right now! I want every pirate and smuggler in the system chasing that ship!"

Solo and Chewie enter the cockpit of the Falcon.

"Move over" Solo says and Lando lets Solo sit down in the pilots-seat.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing" Lando says.

"Don't worry" Solo says. "I have it all figured out."

The Falcon flies off at full throttle, chased by the corvette, its turbolasers blasting away after the Falcon that dodges the incoming fire with some fancy flying.

Lando, sitting behind Solo, is impressed. "Nice moves, buddy."

"Just hang on" Solo says grins, "I know a few maneuvers."

The Falcon spins and barrel-rolls to evade incoming fire, the corvette trying to keep up.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	10. Chapter 10

**Kessel Nebula:**

The Falcon, followed by the corvette, fly through the nebula.

L3 is checking her scanners. "Coming up on the inner perimeter" she says. "The Empire has this part of space covered by more sensors than Coruscant."

"Don't worry" Solo says. "This is the Hutt Gap. Smugglers have a ten second window to exploit a gap in the sensor-sweeps."

The Falcon and the corvette fly at full throttle through the gas-cloud.

"See" Solo says. "Qi'ras boys don't dare shoot at us cos it will draw attention. Alright, let's see what this girl can do." Solo then tries to make the Falcon go even faster, but nothing happens.

Lando leans forward. "You might wanna activate the heat-exhaust-compensator" and flips a switch.

"Shut up" Solo frowns and then pulls the lever that sends the Falcon shooting through space.

On the bridge of the corvette, the captain is furious as the Falcon increases distance. "Find out who they are… Now!"

The Falcon continues its flight through the nebula at maximum speed.

Solo checks his scanners. "Alright, coming up on second perimeter."

"According to my calculations" L3 says, "there is no gap in the sensor-sweeps at this time. If we continue on our current course we will be spotted."

Solo grins. "Don't worry. We're taking the Corellian Tunnel."

"The what?" Lando asks.

Solo flies towards a huge asteroid floating in the nebula; the Falcon flies low across the surface of the huge rock and then takes a nosedive into a large cave. Solo expertly flies through the cave-system, avoiding all obstacles even though flying at speed.

Lando is not impressed by the chosen route. "If you put a single scratch on my ship, I'll kill you!"

The Falcon continues through the cave and exits at the far end of the asteroid.

"See, nothing to it" Solo says. "Now we'll fly along the third perimeter for two days. That's when we'll reach the Smugglers Crawl. A region of the nebula filled with supercharged particles. It will protect us from being detected, but push our engines too much and then we'll ignite the entire cloud." Chewie growls irritated. "Because" Solo says, "had I told you before you wouldn't have come along. Right?" Chewie growls and sulks. "See? So you were better off not knowing." Solo gets out of the pilots-seat and pats L3 on the shoulder, "Stay on our present course and at our current speed. We should be alright for the next two days."

Sometime later, Solo is resting in a bunk-bed when Lando walks up to him.

"We're coming up on the Smugglers Crawl" Lando says. "And we've got company."

Solo and Lando joins L3 and Chewie in the cockpit, Chewie explaining the situation.

"I'm not worried" Solo says. "Many smugglers take this route through the nebula."

"There are five ships out there" Lando says. "That's a lot of ships just hanging around in the nebula, doing nothing."

"Hey, relax" Solo says as he takes over the controls. "I have a good feeling about this. Trust me."

The Falcon and the other ships enters the Smugglers Crawl. L3 looks out the cockpit and spots a ship dangerously close to the Falcon.

"With the restrictions to our speed this cloud creates, this would be the perfect spot for an ambush" L3 points out.

Chewie makes a point and Lando quirks an eye at the information. "This cloud used to be known as the Pirates Bottle-neck for that very reason?!"

"Come on" Solo shrugs his shoulders. "That was before the Clone Wars. The Hutt cartels places hefty bounties on any pirate that attacks ships in this cloud these days. That's why its called the Smugglers Crawl and not the Pirates Bottle-neck."

"I don't know" L3 says and checks her scanners. "Three of those ships are moving in too close for comfort."

Lando checks his station behind Solo. "That Barloz-class freighter keeps closing in."

"Don't worry about it" Solo says. "Even a tractor-beam is suicide in this cloud. It would cause an energy build-up within the tractor-field that could, if unlucky, ignite the field."

L3 checks her scanners. "The Barloz is moving below us."

"See" Solo says with a cocky grin. "They're just avoiding energy-pockets, just like we are."

The Barloz-freighter moves in beneath the Falcon. Then, it launches four magnetic-hooks from its dorsal that connect with the Falcons ventral hull. The sound of the hooks locking on sending a noise through the Falcon.

"Whatta hell?" Solo says.

Lando growls. "They've locked onto us with tow-cables!"

Chewie growls and leaves the cockpit and Lando follows him.

"Nothing to worry about, huh?" L3 says to Solo.

"How was I to know?!" Solo defends himself with and then hurries after Chewie and Lando.

L3 would have sighed had she been able to. "Organics should not be entrusted with risk-assessment. Useless meat-bags."

The Barloz uses the tow-cables and magnetic-hooks to pull itself in to the Falcon until their hull touch. Solo catches up to Lando and Chewie who are waiting by the ventral-hulls airlock.

"Great plan, _Han_!" Lando growls, blaster ready. "Take the route that slows us down to a crawl so that any fool in the galaxy can catch up to us and board us!"

"Stop your whining" Solo snaps and pulls out his blaster, "and defend your damn ship."

The airlock opens and Solo, Chewie and Lando opens fire down into the hole, multiple salvoes. They stop firing after a while, smoke rising from the airlock.

"Did we get 'em`?" Lando wonders and Chewie gives him a response.

Solo climbs down the ladder and enters the other ship. Taking up a defensive-position, Chewie and Lando climb down after him.

In the Falcon's cockpit, L3 checks their surroundings. "You better be quick about it" she says. "Two more ships are closing in and I'm willing to bet they plan to crash this little party."

Lando, Solo and Chewie walk through the other ship, a ship that appears abandoned.

"Where the hell is everybody?" Lando wonders.

"I don't know" Solo says. "But I have bad feeling about this."

Chewie growls and walks over to some controls and pulls on four levers; disconnecting the magnetic-hooks, one by one.

"Great job, Chewie" Solo says whilst providing cover. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Yeah" Lando nods. "This place gives me the creeps."

That's when a humanoid droid appears, hand in the air, and Solo and his friends instantly take aim at the droid.

"Forgive me, gentlemen" the droid says. "I mean you no harm. I am merely the pilot of this vessel. I am Double X-Oh-Six, navigation and co-pilot droid. I was tasked to intercept you to bring you a message."

"A message?" Lando says, a bit confused.

"What sort of message?" Solo asks.

"Establishing connection now" XX-O-6 says and a hologram flickers into view.

It is a hologram-transmission of Qi'ra and Solo and the others realize she is able to see them too.

"Well, well, well" Qi'ra says, a frown on her face. "I might have known. Only you are stupid enough to try and steal from me, Han."

"Well, to be fair" Solo says, "Lando didn't really argue against the whole idea."

"Always with the comeback" Qi'ra says, unimpressed. "Well, your charm wont save you this time. I want my droid back. Leave it on this ship and I promise you that the bounty I will put on your head wont attract the attention of people like Bossk and Boba Fett. It will be a small enough bounty to give you a fighting chance. If you give me my droid, that is."

"You know what, Qi'ra" Solo says. "I've heard so much about Boba Fett, I'm a bit curious to find out if he's as good as they say he is."

"I'm not" Lando cuts in and Chewie agrees.

"You aint getting that droid" Solo then tells Qi'ra, eyes hard as stone. "You tried to end me on Vandor One. Now, I'm gonna put an end to everything you ever dreamed of. I'm handing over your Kessel operation to Black Sun, and all your dreams with it. Enjoy your high-society lifestyle while you can… because it's over."

"Han!" Qi'ra growls.

Solo shoots XX-O-6 in the head and the transmission is cut. Solo then turns to the others.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

The Falcon detaches itself from the other ship and flies off. Solo, Chewie and Lando enter the cockpit and take their seats.

"We're about to exit the Smugglers Crawl" L3 says. "I would like to point out that two of the other ships have positioned themselves directly behind us and will be able to open fire on us the very moment we leave the Smugglers Crawl behind."

"Got it" Solo says. "Hang on, it might get a bit tricky."

"Tricky?" Lando wonders.

The Falcon makes a sharp turn and the other ships are quick to pursue.

"We are heading for a region covered by Imperial sensors" L3 says.

Solo glances back at Lando. "You're sure about this ship flying as fast as you claim it does?"

"Why?"

"Cos I only have a half-second window to fly past the sensors-sweeps up ahead" Solo explains. "So, are we as fast as you claim we are?"

Lando grins. "Faster, baby. We're faster."

Solo grins. "Buckle up."

The Falcon continues and the ships in pursuit veers off.

L3 checks her station. "Coming up on a region thick with Imperial patrols."

"What's the plan?" Lando asks.

"There should be a pocket up ahead" Solo says.

"A pocket?" Lando wonders. "What sort of a pocket?"

"A pocket of empty space" Solo explains. "About the size of a BBF-1 bulk-freighter in the middle of the nebula. It should be enough for us to activate the hyperdrive."

"But the cloud will shut down the motivator the moment we fly into it" Lando says.

"It sure will" Solo says. "But it will give us a speed-boost that will allow us to move past two sensor-perimeters without the Imperials knowing we were ever here."

L3 turns to look at Solo. "You intend to pilot the ship, manually, at velocities close to the speed of light?"

"There's no other way" Solo says.

L3 is a bit astonished. "You do realize you organics built droids for this very reason?"

"Maybe" Solo grins. "But, it's also the reason we Corellians built these kinds of ships. Coming up on the pocket…" Solo puts on a pair of racing-gloves. "Ready the hyperdrive."

L3 is once more astonished. "Ready it? Ready it for what? I need a destination if I am to calculate a trajectory."

Solo looks as L3, shakes his head and sighs as he looks out the cockpit. "I hate droids."

Solo pulls the hyperspace-levers and the Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace. But as soon as the jump is made, the Falcon returns to real-space with Solo at the controls.

"90% of the speed of light!" L3 points out.

The Falcon blasts through the nebula.

"70% of the speed of light!" L3 says.

"How far until we reach the Kessel Graveyard?" Solo asks.

"Fourteen seconds!" L3 says. "Forty% of the speed of light!"

"Look Out!" Lando shouts.

The Falcon makes amazing moves as it dodges floating debris from a thousand old ships; ships that used to transport goods to and from Kessel but are now outdated.

"Twenty% the speed of light!" L3 says.

"If you kill us, I will kill you!" Lando yells.

Chewie growls and howls as he checks his station behind L3.

"Asteroids?!" Lando says, part horror part disbelief.

"5% the speed of light!" L3 informs.

Solo is tense. "Hold on!"

The Falcon shoots through a thinly spread asteroid-field in the middle of the nebula. Thanks to some amazing maneuvers, the Falcon comes through and flies out the other end of the asteroid-field.

L3 turns to Solo. "You have reflexes fast enough to fly a pod-race."

Lando grabs Solo's shoulder. "Don't you ever do that again. Ever!"

Solo merely grins. "Told'ya I could do it."

Sometime later and they are all gathered in the lounge-area of the Falcon.

"Alright" Solo says. "Final stretch. The outer perimeter. We leave the nebula and hyperspace the hell out of here."

L3 turns to Solo. "I calculate that your route through the nebula, should you succeed, will complete the Kessel Run in eleven point nine, eight, nine parsecs. An astonishing record, I might add."

Lando shakes his head. "You'll be a living legend."

"Not me" Solo grins. "The Falcon. The Falcon will become legend. The ship that made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs."

"Eleven point nine, eight, nine" L3 corrects him.

Chewie growls.

Solo nods as Chewie. "Yeah, _IF_ we make it."

Lando is impressed. "You planned this route three years ago?"

Solo nods. "Just for fun. Never thought I'd actually do it."

"Well, you haven't done it yet" Lando tells him. "But I'll be honest with you; I've never seen anything like it. And I'm guessing I never will again."

"You might be right" Solo smiles. "Cos I have no plans on trying _That_ again." Chewie growls. "Well" Solo says and shrugs, "if the pay is good enough."

Lando grins. "May I remind you that you need my ship if you're thinking about doing this all over again. And I have no plans of letting you borrowing the Falcon anytime soon."

"Who says I'll borrow it?" Solo says.

Lando turns serious in an instant. "Don't go there, _Han_. That is a place you don't wanna go."

Solo chuckles. "Relax, Lando. The day I take this ship from you, it'll be fair and square. Right, L3?"

L3 and Lando look at each other and then at Solo. Solo gives them a wink and has a drink.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	11. Chapter 11

**Kessel Nebula:**

The Falcon approaches a large comet with a long tail behind it that travels through the nebula.

"There it is" Solo says, sitting by the controls. "The Exogorth Hive."

Lando appears worried. "Is that as bad as it sounds?"

Chewie ways in with his opinion.

Solo grins. "We should be alright as long as we stick to the tail of the comet."

The Falcon flies in towards the comets tail and finds a position among the debris trailing the massive rock.

L3 looks out the cockpit. "A lot of other ships in here."

One of the ships she spots is another YT-1300, but that one has four large containers attached to its forward-facing mandibles.

"This is the last stretch of the Kessel Run" Solo explains. "Well, one of six options at least. Smaller freighters, like the Falcon, can hide in the tail and avoid detection that way. A smooth ride for the next five days. These other ships will keep going for another three days, but we're dropping out early."

"Another short-cut I take it" Lando says.

Solo nods. "We're gonna have to be quick about it, but we can make it. If we time it right, we can exit the nebula and engage the hyperdrive seconds before an Imperial patrol comes into range. After that, we're safe and on our way to Formos."

"In theory" L3 points out.

"Well, so far that theory holds up, doesn't it?" Solo says with a cocky smirk.

Then, suddenly, the Falcon takes a lot of incoming fire.

"I hate you, _Han_ Solo!" Lando growls and he and Chewie hurry back to man the guns.

"How is any of this my fault?!" Han shouts over his shoulder before he takes the Falcon through some amazing evasive maneuvers.

The Falcon is chased by two ships of similar size, firing their guns at the Falcon, while they all fly through the debris that makes up the tail of the huge comet. Chewie and Lando return fire as best they can. The Falcon flies in close to a large boulder and out of one of the caves, an Exogorth ( the space-slug from Empire Strikes Back ) lunges out and tries to swallow the Falcon; Lando howls out of fear at the sight and turns his guns on the creature, blasting it with several shots. They fly past another boulder and this time when an Exogorth lunges out, it manages to take a chunk out of one of the pursuing ships, causing it to spin out of control and explode against yet another boulder. Solo manages to outfly the last hostile ship and comes up behind it, after having used the debris in the tail of the comet to confuse the enemy vessel; once behind the last hostile, Solo opens fire with the two forward-facing cannons and Chewie and Lando fires their turrets as well at the same target, the result being the enemy ship getting shot to pieces.

L3 checks her scanners. "I see no signs of any other ships intent on attacking us at this time."

"Good" Solo says with a heavy sigh. "So we're clear, right?"

L3 glances at Solo. "For the moment."

Solo nods. "Good enough for me."

Chewie growls and howls from his gun-pit, clearly not impressed, and at his end, Lando simply nods.

"Yeah" Lando says. "We're not doing this again."

 **Qi'ras HQ:**

A hologram of the corvette-captain hovers in front of Qi'ra.

"They were spotted in the Exogorth Hive" the captain says. "Our men were unable to retrieve the droid. But I've made sure that three Imperial ships with captains on our payroll are waiting for them at the Hyperdrive Stretch. We'll get 'em."

Qi'ra is furious where she sits in a chair in a pompous office. "See to it, captain. If they get away with that droid, we're done smuggling spice from Kessel. I will lose my entire operation, and if that happens I will make damn sure you will lose your head! Have I made myself clear?!"

"Yes… Perfectly" the captain says and then cuts transmission.

"They wont catch Han Solo" a female voice says.

Qi'ra looks to the side at the woman who has spoken. It is Enfys Ness!

"Any suggestions?" Qi'ra asks.

Enfys Ness takes a step forward. "You'll never catch Han Solo on the run. He's too good of a pilot. But we know what he came for. What he took from you. The question is, what's he gonna do with that droid? Figure that out and we can catch him… and kill him."

Qi'ra, a fierce frown on her face, nods.

 **Kessel Nebula:**

The Falcon flies along with the other ships in the tail of the large comet.

"Time to leave these smuggler moofs" Solo says. "They got three more days until they'll reach the Hyperdrive Stretch, but they aren't flying the Falcon."

"The navi-computer has been prepared for a jump to Formos" L3 says. "Just give me a heads up when it's time to power up the hyperdrive and charge the motivator."

"Will do" Solo says. "You wont have much time."

"Understood" L3 says. "But I am confident I will be successful. After all, I am a droid and not a defect organic such as yourself."

Solo eyes L3, clearly not comfortable sharing the cockpit with the droid. The Falcon leaves the tail of the comet and heads out into the nebula at full speed.

 **The Serenity Six, Qi'ras corvette:**

An officer walks up to the captain. "Sir, we just got word. The Broken Bell has left the Exogorth Hive and is heading towards the edge of the nebula."

"Where?" the captain asks eagerly.

"Three days from the Hyperdrive Stretch" the officer says. "A quarter parsec from the Rodian Mouth."

"Do we have any ships in that region?" the captain asks.

 **Kessel Nebula:**

The Falcon races though the clouds.

"Get ready" Solo says.

L3 works her controls and flips switches and pulls levers and pushes buttons and turns dials. Behind them, Chewie growls after he checks the scanners.

"He's right" Lando says, sitting behind Solo. "A heavy freighter is coming right at us!"

L3 checks the scanners also. "The Rough Wampa" she says. "A known privateer. Heavily modified. No doubt cruising through the region in search of easy prey."

"Well" Lando says, "in that case, the Falcon is about to upset them."

"Power up the hyperdrive!" Solo growls.

The Falcon shoots through the nebula, followed by a Brayl-class freighter that is firing its heavy cannons at the Falcon.

"Coming up on the edge of the nebula" L3 says.

Solo waits a moment and then, "Punch it!"

The Falcon shoots out of the giant gas-cloud and instantly makes the jump to hyperspace. Seconds later, the pirate-ship emerges out of the nebula, only moments before a Star Destroyer appears out of the thick gas-clouds as well.

On the bridge of the Star Destroyer, an officer walks up to the captain. "Captain, that ship is the infamous Rough Wampa. A known privateer in these parts."

"Pirates" the captain says with outmost scorn. "Remove them from my sensors."

The Star Destroyer opens fire at the smaller ship that desperately tries to avoid getting hit, but after a few salvoes the pirate-ship succumbs and is destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Falcon is travelling through hyperspace. Lando is in the cockpit and pats Solo on the shoulder.

"You did it" Lando says. "The Kessel Run in twelve parsecs."

"Eleven point nine, eight, nine" L3 corrects Lando.

Solo sits in the pilots-seat, smiling, not sure what to say when he realizes what he's done.

"Not bad" Lando says. "Not bad at all" he nods and then leaves the cockpit.

Chewie steps into the cockpit and speaks in Shyriiwook, Solo glancing back at the Wookie over his shoulder and then looks around in the cockpit

"Yeah" Solo nods. "One hell of a ship."

L3 looks at Solo. "And one hell of a pilot."

Solo looks surprised, and satisfied, at L3 as the droid goes back to its duties. The Falcon continues flying through hyperspace.

 **Planet of Kaleval:**

Solo, Lando, Chewie and L3 enter an impressive lounge with a spectacular view of the city. They bring with them Qi'ras R2-unit as they walk up to Dryden Vos who is sitting in what appears to be a throne, surrounded by guards and advisors.

"Kara Guld's R2-unit" Solo says. "Complete with navigational-charts on how to complete the Kessel Run in sixteen parsecs. Feel free to take over her business whenever you feel like it."

"I am impressed" Dryden Vos says and allows a smile to grow on his lips. "This is a most extraordinary gift. A gift that will pay for my move against Tanaab. I must confess… I could use you as go against the Hutt's."

"I'm sorry" Solo says, "but going against the Hutt's is a sure way to get killed."

Lando nods. "I'm forced to agree. Myself, and my ship, will head for calmer territories for a while, if none of you mind. It's been nice knowing you."

"You heard the man" Solo tells Dryden Vos. "See ya around."

"Not so fast, Solo" Dryden says.

Solo and Chewbacca wait while Lando and L3 leaves.

Dryden appears arrogant in his throne. "I understand that you made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs. That is much more impressive than Kara Guld's sixteen parsecs. With this in mind, this R2-unit is worthless. You, on the other hand, Solo, you are worth a fortune."

"You think I'm gonna fly for you?" Solo asks.

"No" Dryden smiles. "I'm telling you that you will fly for me the Kessel Run, along your twelve parsec route."

Solo smiles. "Do you even realize how insane it was that I pulled that off in the first place? The margin of error is so small, not even a droid could have pulled it off. It was blind luck that we made it. That droid right there has navigated the nebula and Imperial patrols successfully a thousand times; it is a sure bet, it will earn you a profit. Me? My route? It wont earn you any profit. You will lose a ship and you'll lose the best damn pilot in the galaxy."

Dryden leans back into his chair. "I payed good money for that information. I was told you could do it again."

"I guess Lando lied" Solo says. "The information he sold you? Not true."

Dryden Vos gets out of his chair and walks over to Solo. "Calrissian tricked me."

"And he sold me out" Solo adds.

"That does not concern me" Dryden growls. "What concerns me is that you lot have made a fool of me… twice. That is something I cannot allow to go unpunished."

"So let me make it up to you" Solo says, earning a comment from Chewie. "Relax, calm down" Solo tells Chewbacca. "Tanaab is part of Braga's territory. I know his operation there well enough. Let me put together a crew and I'll pave the way for your takeover. I am offering you Tanaab at a discount."

Dryden Vos leans in towards Solo and growls. "Intriguing."

 **XXX XXX**

Solo and Chewie are walking through a giant spaceport. Chewie speaks his mind.

"What was I supposed to do?" Solo asks. "Lando sold us out. I had to come up with something to get on Dryden's good side. So what if we're stabbing Braga in the back? He'd do the same in a heartbeat. Now, don't worry about it; I've got a plan. Handing Tanaab over to Dryden is gonna be a walk in the park."

They come around a corner and find themselves face to face with the Cloud Riders, as well as Qi'ra! A moment of silence.

"Hello, Han" Qi'ra says.

"Qi'ra" Solo says.

"Rumor has it you made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs" Qi'ra says.

"Twelve, actually" Solo replies.

Qi'ra smiles and shakes her head. "Too bad you're such a damn good pilot. I would have preferred if you had died at Kessel. But I have no choice. I can't let you get away with this."

"Then we have a problem" Solo says.

"That we do" Qi'ra says in turn.

"Enough talk!" Enfys Ness growls and pulls out a blaster.

The Fight Is On! The shoot-out goes on for a while and the Cloud Riders are shot dead one by one. Chewie beats up some of them in hand-to-hand combat, even pulling an arm out of a socket on one of them. Qi'ra gets wounded and flees. Shortly after, Enfys Ness falls down also, her too wounded. Solo and Chewie walk up to her with blasters aimed at her.

"Go ahead, Han Solo" Enfys Ness tells Solo. "Do it. Kill me! It's what you're good at, isn't it? Not giving a damn… letting anyone die just as long as you survive."

"Just who the hell are you?" Solo asks.

Enfys Ness removes the helmet and reveals who she is; Val, Becketts wife! Her face is badly scarred from vicious claws some years prior.

"Val?" Solo says in disbelief.

"That's not all the Gundarks did" Val tells him. "Their claws did more than simply leave marks on my skull. They gutted me. Ripped out my guts. Ripped out… my… child. Tobias unborn child. Curse you, Han Solo… damn you to hell."

Val takes her last breath and dies on the ground.

Qi'ra, wounded from the gunfight, makes it through the spaceport and reaches her shuttle at a docking-bay. As she moves towards it, someone steps into view behind her; it is Solo. Qi'ra turns around and they come face to face, Solo aiming his blaster at her.

"So" Qi'ra says. "This is it? This is what it boils down to?"

"No" Solo says. "This is how you wanted it. Not me."

"I hired you for the train-job cos you're the best" Qi'ra says. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"I know."

Solo fires his blaster, a single shot, and Qi'ra falls dead to the ground, only a couple of yards away from her shuttle. Solo holsters his blaster, sighs, turns and leaves.

 **Planet of Takodana:  
** Maz Kanata is overseeing her establishment. Over by a table a game of Sabacc is being played; Lando is at the table and is happy, having just won a big hand. L3 is standing among the spectators, when all of a sudden, Chewbacca steps into view and places himself directly in front of the droid who looks up at the Wookie somewhat surprised. Lando is gathering his winnings when he realizes someone has walked up to the table; it is Solo.

"This seat taken?" Solo asks.

"Looks empty to me" Lando says and the two of them sit down. "Nar Shadaa royal hunt" Lando then says. "Know of it?"

Solo smiles. "I've played it a couple of times."

"So" Lando inquires, "what can you put on the table?"

"Double or nothing" Solo says. "As I recall, I owe you twenty-thousand. Let's make it forty."

Lando sighs. "And if you win?"

"I get the Falcon" Solo says with a smug grin.

Lando glances around, almost everyone in the establishment are now focused on their table. He sighs and knows he cant back out. Looking back at Solo, the Corellian is a wide smile as he holds up a pair of golden Sabacc dice.

"Let's play" Solo says.

 **The End**


End file.
